Newcastle Grooming Gang Jailed for Raping 13-Year-Old Girl

A gang who groomed and raped a 13-year-old girl, using threats to kill and kidnap, have been handed jail terms.

The four attackers were aged between 15 and 21 when they abused the victim between August 2018 and April 2019, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

The girl said they “tortured” her, making childhood a “living nightmare”.

Brothers Omar and Mohamed Badreddin and Huzaefa Aleboud were found guilty of multiple rapes. Hamoud Al Soaimi was found guilty of sexual assault.

‘Aggressive and rough’

Judge Amanda Rippon said the girl was already “extremely vulnerable” when she met the “far more sophisticated” males in Newcastle.

She was repeatedly abused in the castle keep in Newcastle city centre and behind a burger restaurant after being “groomed” with alcohol and cigarettes, the court heard.

Mohamed Badreddin, then aged 17, was “aggressive and rough” with her and threatened that his brother Omar, then aged 20, would “hurt her if she didn’t do stuff with him”, prosecutor Anne Richardson said.

The girl was also raped at her own home with the brothers, who moved to the UK as refugees from the war in Syria, telling her she would be killed or taken to another country, Ms Richardson said.

The court heard she was raped by Omar Badreddin on at least seven occasions, the first time immediately after his brother had raped her.

Ms Richardson said Aleboud, then aged 17 and also a refugee from Syria, “badgered” the girl to have sexual contact with him by saying she had “let” the Badreddin brothers do it, with there then being “ongoing and regular” rapes.

Al Soaimi, who was 15 at the time and from Kuwait, was heard by a passing witness saying it was his “turn” with the girl after she had been raped.

He also sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl, the court heard, with Judge Rippon saying he was copying the behaviour of Badreddin brothers whose “swagger” he “foolishly held in high regard”.

‘Petrified’

In a statement read to the court, the 13-year-old victim, now aged 19, said: “My childhood turned into what I can only describe as a living nightmare.”

She said she dropped out of school and turned to drugs and self-harming to “cope” with the trauma, adding her family had also been devastated by what happened.

The girl said she was “petrified” of the men who had “tortured” her and “hurt [her] in so many ways”, adding the experience and impact had been “horrific”.

In mitigation for Mohamed Badreddin, Sue Hirst said he had grown up in a warzone in Syria.

Glenn Gatland, for Omar Badreddin, said he had been “haunted” by his experiences in Syria, having lost an older brother in the conflict, and felt “deep shame and guilt” for being in prison.

Robin Patton, for Aleboud, of Tilmouth Park Road in Throckley, said he had been “physically puny” after undergoing treatment for a recurring childhood cancer and had not been a leader of the group.

In mitigation for Al Soaimi, Joe Hedworth said his family moved to the UK from Kuwait in 2016, adding he was “immature and easily led”.

‘There to be used’

Judge Rippon said the Badreddin brothers, of Middle Garth in Newcastle, led the group and “quickly identified” the girl could be “manipulated” and “groomed”.

She said they treated her like a “toy” and found it “entertaining”, exploiting her and using her for sex.

“Even when she begged you to treat her more kindly and told you truthfully she was harming herself and could not cope, you made fun of her,” Judge Rippon told the brothers.

The judge said the other defendants were “followers” of the brothers and learned from them that “local girls were there to be used and played with”.

She said she accepted the girl had told them she was 15 when she was actually 13, but the “reality” was “none of you cared how old she was”.

The girl tried to learn their language and started reading the Quran in an attempt to befriend the men, and in return she was “abused and passed around”, the judge said.

The men, the first three of whom must sign the sexual offenders’ register for life and Al Soaimi for 10 years, received the following sentences:

• Omar Badreddin, 26, for five counts of rape, jailed for 18 years
• Mohamed Badreddin, 23, for six counts of rape and one count of assault by penetration, jailed for 13 years
• Huzaefa Aleboud, 23, for assault by penetration, two counts of rape and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, jailed for five and a half years
• Hamoud Al Soaimi, 21, for three counts of sexual assault and one assault by penetration, jailed for two years suspended for two years with 180 hours unpaid work

The Badreddin brothers’ sentences also included a year in jail each for violent disorder after they threw bottles and charged at police when a Black Lives Matter group clashed with North East Frontline Patriots in Newcastle city centre on 13 June 2020.

A restraining order was also made banning each defendant from contacting the two victims and several other girls, or referring to them on social media.