It made them the youngest defendants to appear on a rape charge, and compelled a little girl to relive the moment she said they assaulted her. Had the boys been under the age of criminal responsibility, none of the lawyers, police or jurors would have been here.īut ten, the law says, means they can effectively be tried as adults. Her testimony was so matter-of-fact that you had to keep reminding yourself of the ages involved. In one of the most remarkable cases ever to come before a jury, the allegation was that they lured her away from her home and into a field nearby. She never used the word rape - but that was the charge the boys in Court 7 at the Old Bailey faced as they sat with their chins on their hands, flanked by their mothers and two lawyers, to watch her evidence on screen. With the startling candour of an innocent child, she told how two ten-year-old boys forced her to pull down her pants before taking it in turns to do something to her that made her bow her head and wipe her eyes when she described it. A court sketch from the Old Bailey features the two boys facing a TV screen as the eight-year-old girl gives evidence during the trialĪnd what she said on film reduced the highest criminal court in the land to virtual silence yesterday.
