Seven years for woman convicted of rape

A teenager believed to be Britain's youngest convicted woman rapist has been sentenced to seven years in a young offenders' institution.

Claire Marsh, 18, was among a group of up to 12 youths who attacked a 37-year-old woman as she walked along a canal towpath in west London last July.

Her two co-accused, aged 15 and 18, were sentenced to five years in a young offenders' institution after admitting the rape.

Marsh's lawyer said she was pregnant during her trial at Blackfriars Crown Court last month and is due to undergo the final stages of an abortion.

Marsh had denied the attack but was found guilty by a jury last month. She sobbed and shook her head as her sentence was imposed at the Old Bailey.

Judge Timothy Pontius sentenced Marvin Edwards, 18, of Brentford, west London, and Nathan Hewitt, 15, to be detained in a young offenders' institution for five years. They were ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register and remain on it for life.

Two other youths, aged 15 and 16, who were alleged to have taken part in the attack, were found not guilty by a jury at Blackfriars Crown Court.

Judge Pontius, sentencing, said the attack "would have been horrifying enough if you were all adults. For teenagers to attack someone in such a vicious and utterly merciless way is totally beyond belief."

Their victim suffered a "sustained ordeal" after joining the group as they walked along the towpath of the Grand Union Canal in Ladbroke Grove, he said.

Marsh, of Laleham Walk, Margate, Kent, was involved in ripping off the victim's clothes and pinning her to the ground so she could be raped "without resistance", he added.