A 14-year-old girl who was raped and sexually abused by a gang operating in Peterborough was only able to reveal what had happened to her after she spoke to her social worker after being taken into care.
On Thursday (20/02/14) at the Old Bailey, Judge John Bevan sentenced the gang of four men to between five-and-a-half and 20 years in jail – a total of 54 years between them.
The men sentenced are Hussan Abdulla aged 33, gang boss Zdeno Mirga and Renato Balog – both aged 18 – and Jan Kandrac,17.
A 14-year-old boy also involved in the child sex attacks had previously been given a rehabilitation order.
The gang members are Kurdish, Slovakian and Czechoslovakian and are from Roma communities in Eastern Europe. They preyed on young girls in the Peterborough area – one girl was raped in a Wendy house while playing in Central Park in Peterborough. Three of the girls at the centre of the case are English, while another two are sisters from Slovakia.
At least one of the girls was “sold” to other men for as little as £20 for group sex by Mirga, who spent the money on “weed and vodka”.
Many of the girls were too frightened to tell their parents what was happening to them – one of the girls who was raped and sexually abused by the gang had learning difficulties.
The mother of one of the girls involved in the gang’s sex attacks spoke of how her “bubbly” daughter had become “transformed” by the sexual abuse the men subjected her to.
The investigation was carried out under a joint venture by Peterborough City Council’s children services and Cambridgeshire Police known as Operation Erle.
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