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Teenagers sentenced for Primark toddler kidnap Teenagers sentenced for Primark toddler kidnap
(about 2 hours later)
Two teenagers who kidnapped a child from a Primark store have been detained for three years and three months. Two teenage girls have been detained for more than three years each for kidnapping a child from a Primark store after luring her away from her mother with sweets.
Mr Justice Globe concluded that the girls, aged 13 and 14, took the two-year-old girl from her mother and serious harm to the child was foreseeable. Sentencing the girls, Mr Justice Globe said that although the two-year-old was returned to her mother unharmed, she was at risk of physical and sexual violence; evidence had been presented suggesting that at least one of the kidnappers had been conducting internet searches of a sexually violent nature.
Sitting at Newcastle crown court, Globe said the toddler was at risk of physical or sexual violence and/or exploitation. The judge was referring to internet searches made on a tablet belonging to the younger defendant. The girls, aged 13 and 14, took the toddler from Primark on Newcastle’s main shopping street on 13 April. They took her on the city’s Metro system to the nearby suburb of Gosforth but were soon found, and the child was returned to her mother.
He said: “The internet history shows hundreds of searches in relation to pornographic topics which include children having sex, rape, slavery and abduction.” After the teenagers were arrested, the online search evidence was found on the younger kidnapper’s tablet device. “[It] shows hundreds of searches in relation to pornographic topics which include children having sex, rape, slavery and abduction,” Globe, sitting at Newcastle crown court, said on Monday.
The judge initially sentenced them to three years and four months but reduced this by a month having heard they had been subject to a curfew since they pleaded guilty to kidnap. The kidnappers and the victim cannot be named for legal reasons.
The court heard that the toddler’s mother was so distressed when she realised her daughter was missing that she banged her head against a wall. She has suffered extensive psychological harm as a result of the incident, the judge said.
It also emerged in court that the younger of the kidnappers had been sexually exploited online herself. She had sent pictures of herself and her fellow defendant to a man at his behest, the court heard.
Despite the kidnappers’ claims that they carried out the crime under pressure from a third party, no evidence was presented of involvement by anyone else, including the man who exploited the younger kidnapper.
The older defendant claimed a man called “Nazzer” told them to take a child and was with them on the day of the kidnapping. CCTV evidence showed that to be a lie, the court heard, and police were convinced the teenagers acted alone.
The two kidnappers had been playing with their victim under her mother’s supervision prior to snatching her, in a display the mother thought was “sweet”.
The prosecutor, Sarah Barlow, said: “They offered her sweets. That’s indicative of the level of planning: they had taken with them things likely to attract a child to them.
“They were playing with her. [The toddler] was running to and from the girls. Her mother was not suspicious, she simply thought the girls were playing with her daughter and were being quite sweet. This went on for some 15 minutes.”
The girls then took the toddler into a lift and out of the store, before heading away from the city centre. Barlow said CCTV from the lift in Primark showed the girls looking anxious, indicating “they knew at that stage what they were doing was wrong”.
On the Metro, witnesses saw them giving the girl sweets and offering her a drink. One of the kidnappers was overheard saying: “Don’t worry, we will get you to your mummy.”
Once they arrived in Gosforth, they tried to take her to a soft play area but were not allowed in, then went to a Sainsbury’s, where they stole a bottle and milk in an attempt to keep the toddler quiet. They then took her to the swings in a park.
Barlow said the little girl was located “mercifully, relatively swiftly” after a description was circulated, and CCTV was examined.
Julie Clemitson, defending the younger girl, said her client had been sexually exploited and was “a damaged, vulnerable young girl”. Andrew Walker, for the older defendant, said she had displayed maternal instincts through her life and had never harmed a child. Each was to be detained for three years and three months.