Teenage girl 'gang raped and covered in burning caustic soda'

A teenager with learning difficulties was gang raped by up to ten youths who then showered her 'head to toe' with burning caustic soda, a court heard today. 

The attackers left the girl 'naked, screaming, crying and in a desperate state' as they ran away laughing, it was alleged.

They had picked on the shy 16-year-old because they claimed she was a 'dirty ho who was asking for it', Wood Green Crown Court in North London heard.

The girl was left traumatised and severely disfigured by the attack. 

Prosecutor Rosina Cottage said she may have been raped because she had recently slept with three men known to the gang.

'She was shy and insecure and with learning difficulties and thought that she would be liked by these boys if she had sex with them.

'Of course, the world can be an old-fashioned place and they did not like her. 

'They thought she was, to use the words of a number of these defendants, ''dirty''.'

On January 9 this year Mark Hendricks, one of the men she had previously slept with, allegedly lured her to a unoccupied house in Tottenham, North London, where the other youths were waiting.

Miss Cottage said: 'She had no idea what was in store for her.

'They raped her ..., and when they had enough of her, and she dared to say no, her body was burned from head to toe with caustic soda.

'She was naked and unprotected, and as she screamed they laughed and ran away.'

As the alleged attackers fled, a neighbour heard screams and banging coming from the house.

'When she went in there was a naked woman at the top of the stairs. She was screaming constantly for help. She said that she had been raped.'

A harrowing 999 call made by the neighbour was played to the court in which the girl's howling screams could be heard in the background.

At hospital she was sprayed with water jets to clear the caustic soda from her.

But her injuries were so bad that she was unable to talk for over a month and remained in hospital for several weeks.

In all, half her body was burned, leaving her permanently disfigured. She has been operated on several times and still requires further surgery.

The court heard that immediately after the rape some of the gang gathered at a nearby friend's house where a witness described how they were 'having a laugh, and then started to talk about some madness and being chased down the road'.

When one of the victim's friends telephoned defendant Bradley Daley-Smith, who she suspected of being involved in the attack, he told her that 'she was a ho and she deserved it'. 

He added that it was not rape and the boys 'were not going to prison for this'. 

Daley-Smith, 21, Bruno Abrantes, 24, Jason Brew, 18, Miguel Almedia, 22, Ismail Opeyemi, 20, Hector Muaimba, 20, and a 17-year-old who cannot be named, all deny two charges of rape and one of grievous bodily harm.  continues here

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