Generation of teenage girls growing up in fear of rape

A generation of teenage girls on inner-city London estates is growing up in a climate of fear because gang rape has become a real and growing danger, says Camila Batmanghelidjh, the founder of Kids Company, a charity that helps abused and neglected children.

"We are seeing a shocking increase in young girls, some as young as 13, who have been sadistically gang-raped but most perpetrators are never brought to justice because the victim is usually threatened with her own life, and the lives of her extended family, if she speaks out," Batmanghelidjh said.

"On some estates, gang rape has become a way of meting out brutal punishment to girls who go out with members of a rival gang, or who talk back and are regarded as 'rude girls' acting above their station. Gang rape is a kind of trophy humiliation, and the more savage the attack, the more it notches up their credit rating within the gang."

With the Metropolitan police admitting that gangs are getting younger and resorting to more lethal violence more swiftly and for the most trivial of slights, Batmanghelidjh argues that a new approach is required to tackle this spreading menace.

"The police should take the pressure off the victim and charge the perpetrators with rape, irrespective of whether the victim brings charges, just as they do with domestic violence cases," she says.

Sickening

Her warning comes in the wake of two sickening gang-rapes. In one, a 14-year-old girl was repeatedly raped "as punishment" by nine members of Hackney's Kingzhold Boys gang because she had "insulted" their leader and called him "ugly". The boys, some as young as 13, dragged her around three tower blocks, calling friends by mobile phone to join in. They laughed and egged each other on as they took turns assaulting her.

Handing down sentences ranging from two years and five months to indeterminate detention orders, the judge condemned the gang for their chilling lawlessness and lack of remorse after one gang member said: "It's not a problem for most girls to be raped."

In another case, 10 thugs were found guilty of repeatedly raping and throwing caustic soda over a 15-year-old Tottenham girl. They will be sentenced this month.

In the past two years, there have been 176 reported gang rapes (involving three or more attackers) in London, though "these offences may be under-reported", admit the Metro-politan Police. Most gang rapes take place in deprived boroughs, they add, with most perpetrators and most victims aged 15 to 21.

The one voice hardly ever heard is that of the teenage girls themselves. What is it like to confront a rampant misogynistic male culture as part of your daily life? Sandra, 17, a bright, attractive girl who has just passed her A-levels, has lived on the rough Ibscott estate in east London, with her unemployed mum and younger sister since she was 12. Sandra, who is white, regards herself as "one of the lucky ones" in that she has not been raped herself. But the gauntlet of abuse that she runs - and the trauma experienced by some of her friends - is one that readers will find deeply disturbing.

Confrontation

One day when Sandra was 14 and walking home from school, she heard some boys call out: "Here, come here!" "My heart started pounding," she says. "I told myself: walk on, keep your head down, ignore them, just keep going." Sandra knew it was best not to talk back to the local Lego Manz crew - so named because of the Lego-like high-rise flats off the A13 they lived in - and she prayed the gang would let her pass.

But taking her silence as rudeness, they began chasing her. As Sandra tried to run, she tripped and fell. She looked up to see the boys, who were also just 14 and attended her school, spitting and laughing at her. She was terrified she was about to be raped, she recalls, for she knew all too well what happened to girls targeted by gangs.

This time she warded them off and ran, crying hysterically, to a shop to call her mother.

"After that, I was too scared to walk home on my own," she says.