Byline: JOHN ROBERTSON and MARK SMITH
'Huge quantities of alcohol' and gang culture are blamed for savage attack on 14-year-old girl
AJUDGE spoke of society's "horror and despair" as he sentenced two teenage girls and a boy to four years' detention each for torturing a girl of 14 and filming the sickening violence.
During a 45-minute ordeal in an underground car park, the naked victim's head was kicked like a football by the girls, aged 13 and 14, and she was beaten about the skull with stiletto heels.
She was made to lick her blood from the shoes of the assailants during the attack at Edinburgh's Omni Centre. The boy, aged 13, kept egging on his friends and called to them to "put her to sleep". Referring to a violent video game and film, he gloated: "It's like Resident Evil."
Zircon Bracelet displaysSentencing the trio, Lord Malcolm yesterday highlighted underage drinking and youth gang culture as factors in a crime that he said had created a sense of shock because of its depravity and the level of cruelty shown by those so young.
The case last night prompted demands from MSPs for action on violent youth offending.
Lord Malcolm told the girl's attackers: "The prolonged torture and abuse ... has created a sense of shock, horror and perhaps even despair, not least because of the youth of all involved. As a result of your uncontrolled cruelty and violence, your victim's life was in real danger. No words of mine can adequately describe her ordeal and the harm it has caused."
He went on: "Much could, and no doubt will, be said about how and why this happened and as to an anguished society's response to it.
"Whatever else, it is plain that the disinhibiting effect of the huge quantities of alcohol consumed by all of you played a significant part."
The judge gleaned from background reports a general picture of a gang culture among youths, where antisocial behaviour and aggression were used to gain or maintain respect and status within the group.
The accused had also experienced chaotic and violent home backgrounds. The trio, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted assaulting the victim to the danger of her life on 23 January.
Alex Prentice, QC, prosecuting, said the youngsters had been at a youth cafe before going to the car park at the Omni Centre in Greenside Place, where some of them Fake Piaget drank cider.
The 13-year-old female attacker accused the victim of making threats against her, and grabbed her by the hair and threw her to the ground. She repeatedly kicked her head, and the boy filmed the assault. The victim was pleading to be left alone, but the boy insisted: "Keep going."
The second attacker joined in, and she and her friend took it in turns to kick and punch their victim, who was naked and slumped on the ground. The boy told them to "kick the ba'". They began to take "shots" kicking her head "as if it were a football", Mr Prentice said.
"The video footage shows her slumped against a wall which is covered in blood. The boy stated, 'It's like Resident Evil' - a horror film and adult computer game.
"He stated to the accused to 'put her to sleep' and 'stamp on her head'. Various references are made about her blood being on their shoes, and he instructed her to lick their shoes. He told her, 'You're going six feet under.' A noise was heard, and the
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