’12-year-old repeatedly raped by African grooming gang’

A girl was sexually abused and raped by an African child grooming gang for more than two years, a court heard.

The victim who was then 12, met Samuel Desta, 24, on a bus to Folkestone, Kent, on January 2016, jurors heard.

She was abused by Desta, alongside Binyam Kasey, 23, Ismail Ahmed, 23, Michael Fisahatsion, 23, Samir Mohammed, 31, Bereket Tesfargirgis, 23, Yemani Mengistab, 21, Romsegad Hailu, 32, Haben Gebreyohannes,24 and Matusala Tadesse, 22, it is claimed.

During that period, the vulnerable teenager claims she was repeatedly assaulted, raped and held against her will in incidents in different Kent addresses by the gang, who are Ethiopian and Eritrean.

Prosecutor Philip Bennetts QC said: ‘The complainant is now aged 19.

‘In February 2018, she disclosed to her social worker that she had lost her virginity at a very young age.

‘She described being befriended by Samuel Dester and Binyam Kasay when she and a friend were travelling to Folkestone on a bus.

‘The result of that meeting is that she was sexually abused by these defendants, that is the prosecution’s case.

‘Attracted perhaps by the attention of older males she repeatedly went to addresses where she was assaulted and raped.

‘You will have to view the evidence, you may think, through the lens of a child who matured against the distorted world that she had been dragged into by these defendants.’

Jurors heard that after the girl met Desta on the bus on January 15, he followed her to the beach and sexually assaulted her.

The following day, the two girls were invited to a Folkestone address with a number of men in the house.

After feeling sick from a cigarette she was offered, the victim went on to the bathroom, Southwark Crown Court heard.

But on her way back she was dragged into a room by Dester, who locked the door despite her attempts to fight him off raped her, it is said.

The girl was subjected to 29 separate attacks of being held against her will, assaulted, raped and hit when she refused to perform sexual acts.

The ten accused attackers appeared in a packed court, with some of them allowed to sit outside of the dock due to space constraints. They were variously assisted in court by Eritrean and Tigray interpreters.

Samir Mohamed, of York Road, Canterbury, Kent, denies two counts of rape, two counts of encouraging the comission of an offence and abducting a child.

Kasay, of Oxford Street, Canterbury, Tadese, of Dalgano Gardens, north Kensingon London, Dester, of Gravesend, Kent, and Hailu, of Cherry Orchard Road, Croydon, each deny rape and abducting a child

Dester further denies sexual assault of a child under 13.

Fisahatsion, of Coburg Close, Westminster, and Tesfargirgis, of Myrtle Street, Middleborough, Cleveland, each two counts of rape and two counts of abducting a child.

Gebreyohannes, of Uxbridge Road, Shepherd’s Bush, west London, denies two counts of rape and abducting a child.

Mengistab, of Warwick Road, Canterbury, denies one count of rape and two counts of abducting a child.

Ismail Ahmed, of Seymour Road, Bristol, denies sexual activity with a child.

The trial continues tomorrow (weds).