Toddler was at serious risk, says judge as kidnap plot teenagers are sentenced

A JUDGE who sentenced two teenage girls for kidnapping a toddler from a Primark store concluded she was at risk of serious harm having heard of troubling internet searches about rape and exploitation found on a tablet computer.

The younger of the defendants, who are aged just 13 and 14, had been groomed by an unknown man and swapped sexual messages on the chat site ooVoo, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

Both had tried to claim that they abducted the two-year-old on April 13 from the city centre store in Newcastle following pressure from a third party. But police found there was no evidence of anyone else being involved in the kidnap which resulted in the coming to no harm.

Mr Justice Globe sentenced them to three years and three months’ detention.

The girls had already tried to entice another two-year-old from her mother in the same shop where they spent many hours that day.

Sarah Barlow, prosecuting, said the girls found their kidnap victim at 4pm. He said: “They were playing with her. [The toddler] was running to and from the girls.

“Her mother was not suspicious, she simply thought the girls were playing with her daughter and were being quite sweet. This went on for some 15 minutes.”

After they successfully grabbed little girl the other child, her mother banged her head against a wall in the store and was “utterly distraught” when she realised her daughter had been taken.

After the girls were arrested, the younger girl’s tablet was analysed, Ms Barlow said.

Of 1,185 internet searches made since she got the device for Christmas, 402 were of a pornographic nature.

Witnesses reported seeing the little girl being swung, played with and carried by the kidnappers.

They pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to a charge of kidnap and shoplifting. The judge declined to lift an order preventing the defendants from being named.