One of the teenagers was seen crying next to his mum in court as he was cleared of raping a 13-year-old girl at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court after a dramatic trial
Teenage boys accused of raping a girl when they were 12, 13 and 14 burst into tears in the court when they were found not guilty.
After a two-week trial, the now 16-year-old and the now 15-year-old were both cleared of rape, with all three cleared of two ‘joint enterprise’ counts.
The three boys denied the charges and said at trial it was ‘consensual’. Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court heard part of the incident was filmed on a mobile phone.
Footage was later ‘circulated among themselves’ and ‘others’, prosecutors said. Jurors were asked to find whether the third boy, now aged 14 and previously found unfit to stand trial, had committed the acts and whether he had encouraged the other boys.
Returning their verdicts, the jury found he had not committed the offences, reports Manchester Evening News.
Tears and heavy sighs were seen around the court as the jury foreperson delivered the verdicts, and one exhausted voice said: “Jesus.”
One boy was seen crying as he sat next to his mum, while another boy put his arm around the shoulder of a trembling family member
The teenage girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was alleged to have been raped just off a footpath near to Newbold tram stop in Rochdale in February 2024, the court earlier heard.
The jury was told the girl was ‘physically pushed and bent over forward’ as she was raped. Prosecutor Kim Whittlestone said the boys then ‘all swapped’. She said it ‘would have been obvious’ that she ‘did not want this to happen’.
“It would have been clear that she was not consenting,” she told the jury. A friend the girl was with ‘stepped in to stop what was happening’ and the now 15 and 16-year-olds ran away from the scene, it was said.
Jurors were told ‘some’ of what happened was filmed on a mobile phone. The girl was ‘not asked if she consented to filming’, jurors heard.
In the footage, which was played to the jury, ‘clapping’ noises could be heard, along with a voice telling the girl to ‘s*** it’. It was said the now 16-year-old could be seen behind the girl, while the now 15-year-old was filming. The now 14-year-old was said to have ‘slapped her bottom’, prosecutors alleged.
“The prosecution say that they took it in turns and swapped positions,” Ms Whittlestone said. She was asked if she wanted to have sex and replied ‘no’, the jury heard, which was heard by the friend she was with.
In the hours before the attack, the boys were seen on CCTV in Rochdale town centre before heading to Rochdale tram station, jurors heard. The victim, who later told police she was going to McDonald’s, was waiting at the stop with a friend, the court heard. They all got on the tram and got off at Newbold tram station.
“There is some interaction on the tram, but not consistently throughout the journey,” Ms Whittlestone said. The boys could be seen ‘blocking’ the path of the girls when they all got off at Newbold, with the now 15-year-old putting his arm around her shoulders, prosecutors alleged.
The Crown alleged they were ‘manhandled by the boys’ and that the girl was pushed into the bushes off a pathway leading from the tram stop.
Giving evidence, the now 16-year-old said the girl said she ‘fancied him’ and that there was ‘talking and flirting’ on the tram. He said she ‘voluntarily’ went first into the bushes and began to perform a sex act on his co-defendant.
The now 15-year-old boy said the girl had ‘asked [him] for sex’ and that he could tell she ‘fancied [him]’ because of ‘the way she was looking at [him]’. They both said in evidence that it was ‘consensual’.
The court heard the now 14-year-old has a diagnosis of ADHD and a learning difficulty with ASD traits and was found unfit to stand trial. Instead jurors were asked to find ‘whether he did the act’ and whether he ‘encouraged’ it to happen without the girl’s consent.
In closing speeches from the defence, Rachel Shenton, who represented the now 16-year-old said consent was ‘more nuanced’ than ‘please may I do this to you? Yes’. She added: “It starts with banter, and flirting, with someone walking into bushes. They are not middle aged people, these are adolescents.
“[The alleged victim] herself said ‘I didn’t say yeah’. Is that enough?” Ms Shenton said the girl had been ‘untruthful’ and said she flirted on the tram. The evidence, she told jurors, showed the girl had been ‘inconsistent’.
“[Her friend] told them to f*** off,” Ms Shenton added. “I asked [the alleged victim] if she told them to ‘f*** off’. She did not. She went into the bushes. I’m not seeking to throw shade at her. She is a young girl… immature. Why didn’t she shout? Why didn’t she scream?”
Ms Shenton said the girl had been embarrassed about being called a ‘sl*g’ by two strangers who walked past. She added: “How does she react? ‘I was raped’. It is a get out of jail free card. This was not a rape, it was a shameful encounter.”
Peter Gilmour, representing the now 15-year-old said: “These are children. We must not judge children by the standards of adults.”
He said his client was 13 at the time and had never had sex before, adding: “She was flirting with him on the tram. They talk on the tram about ‘sh**ging’. Over in the bushes she doesn’t shout or scream or push anyone away.
“If there was a point she had second thoughts, she didn’t give any indication. And she immediately regretted that and says to her friend she had been raped. She went into the bushes, she went willingly. Her answer was ‘I never said yeah’. How was he supposed to know?”
After 9 hours and 46 minutes of deliberations, the jury found all three boys not guilty on all counts.
