BECKFORD: TWO WOMEN STRIPPED TEEN GIRL AS PUNISHMENT AND PUT PICTURES ON FACEBOOK
A 16-year-old girl was beaten and stripped naked in a park by a gang who took pictures of her and uploaded them on Facebook, a court heard today (Mon).
The humiliating nude photographs were taken by two women, Victoria Beckford, 27, and Siobhan Vaughan, 29, who added them to the teenager’s profile page on the social networking website.
The shocking image was spotted by friends and family who contacted the girl’s mother.
Inner London Crown Court heard she had been taken hostage by the gang as punishment for an unpaid debt of £100.
The victim, who cannot be named because of her age, is said to have been locked in a cupboard, punched and beaten with a leather belt during the ordeal on August 14 last year, before being stripped.
Jonathan Polnay, prosecuting, said the case concerned ‘a stupid teenage dispute over some money’ that ‘got way out of hand’.
Jurors heard she was offered the choice of putting her hands in boiling water or being stripped, during the ordeal.
The girl was lured to Ferndale Road, Brixton, southwest London, believing that a friend was going to remove braids from her hair.
It is alleged Antonio Williams and Dannielo Johnson, both 18, were waiting for her.
Johnson tied her wrists with a dressing gown cord and then demanded her phone and PIN number.
He then allegedly locked her in a cupboard for more than an hour, during which he slid the blade of a knife through the gap between the doors.
When she was let out, Johnson beat her with a leather belt, it was said.
Sian Roberts, 24, who the prosecution say was owed the debt, then arrived with Beckford, 27.
Roberts ‘dragged’ the 16-year-old to her car and drove her around south London, collecting Vaughan and a 17-year-old boy.
The gang allegedly then agreed that the victim should rob a member of the public and use the money to repay Roberts.
‘However, after a while they could not find a suitable victim so the next plan was to take her to a park and beat her up,’ said Mr Polnay.
With dusk approaching, the group is then said to have headed to a ‘poorly lit’ corner of Crystal Palace Park, where Beckford ordered the girl to strip, telling her: ‘This should teach you a lesson.’
The girl was also offered the alternative punishment of immersing her hands in boiling water.
Mr Polnay said: ‘She chose to put her hands in boiling water but Miss Beckford decided that this was too cruel and demanded that she removed all her clothes.
‘She relented and removed the entire top half of her clothes, but this was not enough for the defendants – and both Victoria Beckford and Siobhan Vaughan demanded that she remove the entire bottom half.
‘She was now completely naked, and Victoria Beckford and Siobhan Vaughan then took out their mobile phones and took photographs.’
The girl’s mother later received phone calls from friends and family who said the girl’s Facebook profile picture had been changed to a nude image of her.
Mobile phone experts subsequently recovered a deleted copy of the photograph on Williams’ handset, which had been saved at 8.58pm on August 14, the court heard.
The other alleged gang members were traced through CCTV footage and mobile phone records.
Mr Polnay said: ‘It’s a group of teenagers taking a perceived slight out of all proportion.
‘Each of the defendants played their part in falsely imprisoning her – some were ringleaders, some supporters, and some were there merely as back-up.’
Johnson, of no fixed address; Williams, of London Road, Thornton Heath, south London; Roberts, of Churchdown Road, Bromley, Kent; Beckford, of Hawke Road, Gypsy Hill, south London; Vaughan, of Menlo Gardens, Croydon, and the 17-year-old, of West Norwood, south London; all deny false imprisonment.
Roberts, Beckford, Vaughan, Williams and the 17-year-old further deny one count of making an indecent image of a child.
The trial continues.
ends
