Four teenage boys persuaded a woman to walk into a dark Newark alleyway claiming to take her for drinks before three allegedly raped her whilst one filmed on his mobile phone, a jury has heard.
The 18-year-old woman had been sitting alone on a bench outside a nail bar in the Nottinghamshire town centre for a few minutes after her phone battery died following a visit to her boyfriend’s home three days after Christmas 2023. A group of male teenagers including the defendants approached and convinced her to accompany them down the secluded passage.
Prosecutor Samuel Skinner KC told Nottingham Crown Court the woman trusted the boys were taking her somewhere to have a drink, but instead “several of these teenagers had sex with her in that alley against her will” on “dirty ground next to some wheelie bins.”
The defendants, two of whom were aged 15 at the time and two aged 17, gave their alleged victim false names in a bid to avoid detection. All later claimed after arrest that she had consented to sexual activity.
However, police discovered videos on one defendant’s phone that he had taken during the incident, which were shown to jurors. Mr Skinner stated the footage “do not show the events clearly at all” but confirmed the defendant’s presence.
The court heard the woman walked home “in an absolute state” following the alleged attack, with cuts and bruises to her knees and bruises elsewhere on her body. She subsequently reported the matter to police and later identified one of the alleged rapists on social media.
Mr Skinner told jurors the woman said “no” and cried whilst the defendants “took it in turns” to attack her. “Other teenaged males watched, encouraging the others and making it difficult for her to escape,” the prosecutor stated.
The first boy alleged to have raped the woman has never been identified. The prosecutor said she kissed him in the alley but he “didn’t listen” when she asked him not to go any further. After having sex with her while others watched, he told them “Have fun boys” once finished.
One of the 17-year-old defendants subsequently raped the woman, followed by one of the 15-year-old defendants forcing her to perform a sex act upon him, Mr Skinner added. The second 17-year-old struck in another secluded area further down the alleyway after initially appearing “kind” when the woman asked him to walk her home.
The final defendant, who was 15 at the time, didn’t have physical contact with the woman but surrounded her while others did and encouraged them, the prosecutor claimed. He denied being present during the incident before police found the videos on his device.
Three of the accused – two now aged 18 and one aged 16 – deny rape, whilst the fourth, now 16, denies aiding and abetting two of his co-accused. None can be named for legal reasons.
Judge Stuart Rafferty KC told jurors at the start of the case: “They were all children at the time the offences alleged against them took place. We do not put children in glass boxes. We treat them better than that.” Despite two defendants now being 18, they sat on the back row of the court rather than in the glass-fronted dock alongside their co-accused.
Mr Skinner reminded jurors the alleged victim was “a female teenager that they had met just minutes beforehand, and whose name they did not know.” The defendants and the group of bystanders knew each other, but the woman did not know any of them.
Parents of the youths listened to details of the evidence from the public gallery as the prosecution opened its case. The trial continues at Nottingham Crown Court with further evidence expected in coming days.
