BECKFORD:GANG GUILTY OF STRIPPING GIRL AND POSTING NUDE SNAPS ON FACEBOOK

Five members of a gang who stripped a 16-year-old girl in a park and photographed her before posting the pictures on Facebook are facing jail.

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 images, taken in Crystal Palace park, south London, were 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 was locked in a cupboard, punched and whipped with a leather belt during the ordeal on August 14 last year, before being stripped.

Beckford and Vaughan were convicted of false imprisonment and making an indecent image of a child after a three week trial.

The jury also convicted Daniello Johnson, Antonio Williams, both 19, and Sian Roberts, 24, of false imprisonment.

Judge Usha Karu will now sentence the five on September 2.

Jonathan Polnay, prosecuting, had told jurors the case concerned ‘a stupid teenage dispute over some money’ that ‘got way out of hand’.

The girl 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.

Williams and Johnson were waiting for her there.

Johnson tied her wrists with a dressing gown cord and then demanded her phone and PIN number.

He then 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.

Roberts, who was owed the cash, then arrived with Beckford.

Roberts ‘dragged’ the 16-year-old to her car and drove her around south London before collecting Vaughan.

The gang 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.’

Mr Polnay added: ‘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.’

Giving evidence the girl said at one point during her ordeal Johnson handed a penknife to his one year old son and told him to ‘get’ her.

Asked how Williams handed the blade to the baby she replied: ‘He just gave it to him, handle first, and he walked towards me holding the knife.’

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.

Williams and Johnson were arrested on August 17 and Roberts and Beckford were arrested six days later. Vaughan was arrested on September 20.

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 and Vaughan, of Menlo Gardens, Croydon, and the 17-year-old, of West Norwood, south London, were convicted of false imprisonment.

Beckford and Vaughan were also found guilty of one count of making an indecent image of a child.

Speaking after the case Police Constable Andrew Birks, from the Lambeth police CID said: ‘This is a horrific case where the victim was subjected to hours of abuse, assault and humiliation by five defendants who when arrested told police a string of lies to try and conceal their involvement.

‘Through the bravery of that child, the jury has been able to recognise the truth behind the events of that day and to reach the verdicts that they have.

‘The events themselves left a traumatic mark on her life, made worse by having to appear in court and relive them because these defendants continued their trail of deceit.’
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