Schoolgirls sentenced after kidnapping toddler from Primark store

The judge concluded that the child the girls took from a Primark store was at risk of physical or sexual violence.
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Hatty Collier19 July 2016
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Two teenagers who kidnapped a toddler from a Primark store have been detained for three years and three months.

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.

Sitting at Newcastle Crown Court, he told them the toddler was at risk of physical or sexual violence, and/or exploitation.

He was referring to internet searches made on a tablet belonging to the younger defendant.

"The internet history shows hundreds of searches in relation to pornographic topics which include children having sex, rape, slavery and abduction," he said.

The younger of the defendants had been groomed by an unknown man and swapped sexual messages on the chat site ooVoo, the court heard.

Both defendants had tried to claim that they abducted the two-year-old on April 13 from the city centre store in Newcastle following pressure from a third party.

But police found there was no evidence of anyone else being involved in the kidnap which resulted in the little girl coming to no harm.

Sarah Barlow, prosecuting, said the girls found their kidnap victim at 4pm.

She told the court: "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."

After they successfully grabbed the child, her mother banged her head against a wall in the store and was "utterly distraught" when she realised her daughter had been taken.

Ms Barlow said the CCTV from the lift showed the girls looking anxious, indicating "they knew at that stage what they were doing was wrong".

CCTV captured the moment the toddler walked out of Primark holding hands with the older girl.

On the Metro system, witnesses saw them giving the girl sweets and offered her Coca-Cola and one of them was overheard saying: "Don't worry, we will get you to your mummy."

A police officer later tracked them down to a park in Gosforth and the girl was reunited with her mother two hours after a major search operation began..

An analysis of the younger girl's tablet found that of 1,185 internet searches since she got the device for Christmas, 402 were of a pornographic nature.

Ms Barlow said: "It began with searches in relation to teenagers having sex, kids having sex, it moved on to topics such as forced sex, slavery, girls collected and trained, torment, people getting raped, children having sex, also searches in relation to abduction and dragged into a van and raped."

Julie Clemitson, defending the younger girl, said her client had been sexually exploited, adding: "She is 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.

The girls, neither of whom had a criminal record, pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to a charge of kidnap and shop lifting.

The judge declined to lift an order preventing the defendants from being named.

Additional reporting by Press Association.

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