The defendants – now 14, 15 and 16 – deny the charges they face following the alleged attack on the girl, who was 13 at the time

Police at the scene in Rochdale in February 2024(Image: Manchester Evening News)

Three boys ‘took it in turns’ to rape a 13-year-old girl in bushes, a jury was told. The boys were aged 12, 13 and 14 at the time, a court heard.

Part of the alleged attack was was filmed on a mobile phone, a trial has been told. Footage was later ‘circulated amongst themselves’ and ‘others’, prosecutors said.

The three boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, deny the charges they face. Two, now aged 15 and 16, are standing trial at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court.

Click here to prioritise Manchester news in Google from the MEN

The third, who was aged 12 at the time and is now 14, has been deemed unfit to stand trial, jurors were told on Tuesday (March 3) as the case was opened.

The teenage girl, who also cannot be named for legal reasons, was raped just off a footpath near to Newbold tram stop in Rochdale in February 2024, the jury was told.

Kim Whittlestone, prosecuting, said: “The prosecution say that these defendants acted together. She was a 13-year-old girl at the time, didn’t know them, they weren’t friends and they had been in her company for a very short period of time.”

The jury was told the girl was ‘physically pushed and bent over forward’ as she was raped. Ms Whittlestone said the boys then ‘all swapped’. She said it ‘would have been obvious’ that she ‘did not want this to happen’. “It would have been clear that she was not consenting,” she told the jury.

Ms Whittlestone said it was the prosecution’s case that the now 15 and 16-year-olds ‘are guilty of rape’ and that ‘they knew what consent meant’. “You will hear in this case that as part of their defence they will say that she consented to some sexual activity and she instigated it,” the prosecutor added.

“So, there can be no doubt that they knew what consent meant.” The trial was told a friend the girl was with ‘stepped in to stop what was happening’. The now 15 and 16-year-olds ran away from the scene, the jury heard.

Jurors were told ‘some’ of what allegedly happened was filmed on a mobile phone. The girl, said the prosecutor, was ‘not asked if she consented to filming’.

“You will watch that footage, a short 10 second clip, but it will give you an insight into the attitude of the defendants,” Ms Whittlestone told the jury. “Later that night they circulated amongst themselves and to others that footage.”

The now 14-year-old, Ms Whittlestone said, was ‘an active participant in what occurred’. The friend the girl was with told police she heard one of the boys saying ‘let me have a go now’, she added.

It is alleged the girl was taken into the bushes by the now 15 year-old, who was joined by the other two. “The prosecution say that they took it in turns and swapped positions,” Ms Whittlestone said.

She was asked if she wanted to have sex and replied ‘no’, the jury heard. That was heard by the friend she was with, the court was told.

Ms Whittlestone said the defendants ‘overpowered’ the girl and that ‘she didn’t know what to do’. She said that in police interviews, she said she was scared.

“She told them she felt panicked and didn’t know what to do,” the prosecutor added. “She said that ‘her head was going 100 miles per hour’ and ‘it was horrible’.”

The jury was told the boys were seen on CCTV in Rochdale town centre talking to some girls before heading to Rochdale tram station. The alleged victim, who later told police she was going to McDonald’s, was waiting at the stop with a friend, the court heard. They all got on a tram and got off at Newbold, it was said.

“There is some interaction on the tram, but not consistently throughout the journey,” Ms Whittlestone said, telling the jury the boys were ‘blocking’ the path of the girls when they all got off at Newbold.

The jury heard they were ‘manhandled by the boys’. “Shortly after leaving the station the offence occurs in bushes off a pathway leading from the tram stop,” Ms Whittlestone said.

“She said it all happened in a blur in a short space of time. The prosecution say that their actions were part of a joint enterprise to rape her.”

Ms Whittlestone said the now 14-year-old has been found unfit to stand trial. She said the jury would be asked to find ‘whether he did the act’ and whether he ‘encouraged’ it to happen without the girl’s consent.

The indictment contains five counts of rape. Three counts relate specifically to each boy, while two are charged as ‘joint enterprise’, jurors were told. Each boy denies the charges they face.

Proceeding