Six migrant teens who filmed gang rape given shockingly lenient sentences
SIX migrant teens who filmed a 13-year-old German girl being gang raped have been given soft sentences in Germany.
Two Bulgarian boys raped her while the others stood around and watched the vile attack in Wuppertal, near Dusseldorf, in April.
The duo were convicted of rape but given just given four years despite prosecutors arguing for a maximum sentence of seven, Spiegel reported.
They were among the group of eight teens aged 14 to 17 who dragged her into the woods.
One of the co-defendants got three years and another boy got just one year and eight months for aiding and abetting.
Despite the brutality of their crime and mobile phone footage of the assault, none of suspects were tried as adults.
According to the evidence, one boy raped her while the rest stood by and the last one filmed the rape.
A court spokesman said the 15-year-old main defendant kept insisting that the victim consented to the sex.
The source added: "He denied the act to the end and claimed that the sex was consensual."
But the judge did not believe him, saying: "It's absurd to imagine that a 13-year-old girl wants to voluntarily have sex with so many men."
The boys' relatives are reported to have broken down in tears when the sentences were handed out.
Christoph Pipping, defending a boy who got a suspended sentence, told local media the video evidence was disturbing to watch.
He said: "That was hard to endure. I've been a defence lawyer for 25 years, but I've never seen anything like that before."
His client is reported to be the only one to have apologised to the victim.
Chief prosecutor Wolf-Tilman Baumert had previously quoted some of the defendants as saying: "She wanted it."
The victim's lawyer, Anke Tillmanns-Larisch, said: "She has since withdrawn inside herself and only goes outside with company."
Two remaining suspects were caught in Bulgaria after fleeing with their families and have since been extradited to Germany, where they will face a separate trial.
In 2016 Germany passed a 'no means no' law that expanded the definition of rape to any form of non-consensual sexual contact.
The measure was passed after mass attacks on New Year’s Eve in Cologne, in which hundreds of women said they were groped, attacked, and robbed.
The legislation closed loopholes that made it difficult to punish offenders as - under the previous law - a victim saying “no” was not enough to establish a lack of consent.
