[F]OUR schoolboys accused of “gang raping” a 15-year-old girl in a dark Workington field have gone on trial.
The boys, all teenagers aged under 16, have each pleaded not guilty to three charges. They deny two rape allegations, and a third charge alleging a further sexual assault.
A jury at Carlisle Crown Court heard today (MON) these charges arise out of an incident in a dark and muddy field in Workington on the evening of January 3 last year. The four boys were said to have been “total strangers” to the girl when they met in the town just before 6-30pm.
By around 7-15pm, three of the four were seen on CCTV “literally fleeing” the scene of what is said to have been a “brutal sexual attack”. Prosecutor Tim Evans, opening the case, alleged this occurred when a “pack mentality” took over, the boys “taking it in turns to rape” her.
However, jurors heard the four boys – who can’t be identified – claim all of their sexual activity with the girl was “with her full and complete consent”.
The boys, all from West Cumbria and smartly dressed in shirts and ties, were sat with parents and solicitors in the well of the court and not the dock. Neither the judge, His Honour James Adkin, nor the boys’ barristers, are wearing traditional wigs and gowns for the hearing.
The trial, which is due to last about a fortnight, continues.
