Six months for boy who raped girl of 11 sparks outrage over 16-year-old thug's soft sentence for attack in McDonald's toilet

Six months for boy who raped girl of 11 sparks outrage over 16-year-old thug's soft sentence for attack in McDonald's toilet

• Series of attacks took place on three separate dates
• Involved up to eight members of the same street gang
• Only two were convicted, but investigations continue
• Ringleader, then aged 13, was jailed for five years
• Judge said attack had 'far reaching effects' on victim
• Thugs beat her up to make sure she kept quiet
  

By Katherine Faulkner
UPDATED: 17:50 EST, 4 May 2012

Jailed: Ibrahim Giwa outside Inner London Crown Court ahead of his sentencing for his involvement of a gang rape of an 11-year-old girl

A teenage gang member who raped a girl of 11 in a McDonald’s toilet will serve only six months behind bars after an astonishing ruling by a judge yesterday.

The 16-year-old was one of several thugs who preyed on the ‘vulnerable and lonely’ victim over a number of months.

They subjected the girl to a series of horrific rapes before trying to intimidate her into staying silent.

But incredibly, he was locked up for just one year yesterday after the judge said the victim’s unwillingness to h ave sex ‘may not have been obvious’ to him and he deserved ‘very great credit’ for pleading guilty.

The teenager â€" who cannot be named â€" is likely to serve only six months in a young offenders’ institution.

Last night the sentence was condemned by victims’ groups, who said it trivialised the rape of a child. In law, a girl of 11 is deemed incapable of consenting to sex in any circumstances.

Jo Wood, a spokesman for Rape Crisis, said: ‘Victims will be appalled by this kind of sentence. That victim will undoubtedly serve a life sentence after what has happened to her.

‘It will have taken considerable courage for her to come forward. I am very concerned that this sentence does not reflect the seriousness of the crime at all.

‘Courts will need to seriously consider the message that sentences such as these send out.’

Terrifying attack: The final attack happened in the toilets of this McDonald's in East Ham

Stephen Timms, the Labour MP for East Ham, said: ‘These attacks were horrendous, repeated and committed by young men who seemed to have little remorse for the trauma they have inflicted on this girl. I am shocked, especially given the gang dimension to this case, that their sentences are so short.’

Conservative MP Philip Davies said: ‘For a court to hand down such a derisory sentence for one of the most serious crimes seems to me to be totally unacceptable.’

Mr Davies said such sentences had ‘left the public with no confidence in the criminal justice system’. He added: ‘It certainly won’t act as a deterrent, or encourage victims of rape to come forward.

‘Given how serious the problems with gang culture are in this country, I think it is very weak indeed.’

The victim, who is now 13, stared at the floor in court yesterday as Ibraheem Giwa, 15, and his 16-year-old co-defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were sentenced to five years and one year respectively.

Both had been members of the Say No More gang from the Custom House area of Newham, East London â€" an area blighted by violent turf wars.

Ibraheem ‘Ibby’ Giwa â€" described as the ringleader â€" was just 13 when he carried out the first attack on the girl in September 2009, Inner London Crown Court heard.

He dragged the girl, who had just started secondary school, into the bushes at a park, and raped her while another boy watched. He then invited her to his house, where she asked him: ‘If I do it, are you going to leave me alone?’

Giwa then raped her again, before inviting a queue of up to eight other gang members to do the same.

The victim wept throughout the attacks and asked the boys to ‘stop it’, but they simply told her to stop crying because it ‘made it look like they’d done something’ to her.

She later told police: ‘They didn’t ask me if I wanted it or not.’

Horrific: The first attack on the 11-year-old was at Central Park in Canning Town, East London where the ringleader and another boy started asking her about sex and then both raped her

The horrific details of the gang attacks were heard by a jury at Inner London Crown Court before the verdicts were given

Six months later, in March 2010, she was attacked in the toilet of a McDonald’s restaurant in East Ham, East London, by the gang member, then 14, who had heard about the previous rapes.

He followed her into the toilet and raped her while his friends waited outside the door. After the attacks, members of the gang bombarded the victim with texts and phone calls warning her not to tell anyone about what had happened.

On two occasions, she was beaten up as a warning not to report the crimes. When she finally did go to the police, officers seized the defendants’ computers and found that Giwa had discussed the rape with others on Facebook.

In one conversation, Giwa had written: ‘I think the girl we rapped (sic) went to police.’

A 15-year-old, who cannot been named and who was later cleared, wrote: ‘What girl?’ Giwa replied: ‘The girl we bang at my house.’

Passing sentence, Judge Patricia Lees said the rapes had been ‘selfish and debased’ attacks on a vulnerable and lonely child who had been left genuinely frightened of gang reprisals.

Judge Lees said the victim had been ‘an easy target’ for the gang.

‘Your actions have had far-reaching and life-changing effects on a young girl you subjected to your debased and selfish desires,’ she said.

‘The victim was but 11 years old. She had just started secondary school.

‘She certainly wasn’t mature enough to realise whether she wanted to have sex with you.

‘You both realised she was likely not to refuse because of her submissive nature, ignoring the way it would inevitably affect her.

‘You chose to ignore that for your own selfish gratification.’

The judge added their victim ‘remains genuinely frightened of reprisals’ for having reported their vile attacks. The Say No More gang â€" their name an edict not to talk to the police â€" are just one of many rival groups of teenage thugs that have blighted East London in recent years.

Their increasingly vicious ‘postcode wars’ have left residents terrified for their lives.

One who dared to stand up to the gangs was Peter Woodhams, a 22-year-old satellite TV engineer from Canning Town. He paid with his life in August 2006 when he was shot through the heart in front of his fiancée and three-year-old son.

His family begged for the police to get a grip on the gang violence crippling the area.

But in 2009, 15-year-old Steven Lewis was stabbed to death by rival gang members from the E16 postcode.

Yesterday residents of the area said ‘nothing had changed’.

Equally disturbing, experts say, is the growing trend towards sexual violence towards young girls on the fringes of gang culture. They believe yesterday’s case it is indicative of a much wider problem.

The Metropolitan Police estimate that the 250 criminal gangs in London are responsible for one in seven reported rapes.

The NSPCC has said a third of teenage girls have been forced into sexual activity, while the Race On The Agenda charity’s research shows rape is used as punishment for girl gang members.

One has gone so far as to claim rape has become ‘normal’ in London gang culture. Isha Nembhard, former member of an 80-strong gang in Peckham, South London, warned in February that some young girls would risk rape in return for membership of a group.

‘It is about low self esteem and a craving for attention,’ she said.

The Government has announced £1.2million to tackle the issue, while the Metropolitan Police has set up the Heart programme, focusing on educating vulnerable girls about relationships.

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