Two girls aged, 13 and 14 years old were jailed today for the kidnap of a toddler in a Primark in Newcastle.
The girls who cannot be named for legal reasons each received sentences of three years and four months after they lured the toddler away from her mother.
The sentencing judge said that the girls had “evil intent” and were intending to cause the child harm.
The girls had been playing with the child for about 15 minutes, which the mother thought was “sweet” as she told the Newcastle Crown Court. However then the girls produced sweets to entice her to come with them into the lift and out of the shop.
The distraught mother described banging her head on the wall in distress when she discovered that her daughter had been abducted.
The teenagers had skipped school and spent hours in the shop on Northumberland Street, Newcastle looking for a child to kidnap on April 13.
They had attempted to take two other children, engaging one child’s mother by saying her daughter was beautiful and asking if she could speak or not.
Mr. Justice Globe, who was the junior prosecution counsel in the trial of James Bulger’s murderers, viewed CCTV from the store which showed the girls approaching shoppers. This footage will not be released, however, the prosecutor, Sarah Barlow told the court that the video showed the two girls ‘working together, quite co-ordinated’ and demonstrated ‘a degree of planning or at least communication between the two.’
After the girls had led the child out of the shop, they took the Metro to the suburb of Gosforth about three miles away.
En route, one witness overheard one of the girls telling the child, “Don’t worry; we will get you to your mummy,” and giving the toddler sweets to placate her.
Once in Gosforth, they stole a bottle and milk to try to keep the toddler quiet and then took her to a local park.
Thanks to the swift circulation of a description, the toddler was thankfully located before any further harm could come to her.
The teenagers admitted to kidnap. After their arrest, police found a tablet with sinister internet searches relating to ‘rape’ and ‘African Women’ though a charge of sexual intent was dropped prior to this hearing.
