Girls aged 13 and 14 who lured away toddler in Primark ‘were groomed by older man who encouraged kidnapping’
Schoolgirls lured a toddler from shop using sweets and Coca Cola
A lawyer for one of the schoolgirls who snatched a toddler from Primark has claimed they were GROOMED into doing it.
Andrew Walker, lawyer for the older girl involved, said they took the toddler on the instructions of an unnamed "third party" but she never actually intended to hand her over to anyone else but her mother.
Julie Clemitson, for the younger girl, said the teen was "vulnerable" and had been talking to an older stranger online.
The schoolgirls have been jailed for three years and four months each.
The teens aged 13 and 14-years-old had been playing with the little girl for 15 minutes in a display which the mother believed was "sweet" before they lured her away.
The kidnappers had skipped school and spent hours in the Primark in Northumberland Street, Newcastle, waiting for a child to abduct on April 13.
Days earlier they Googled "rape", "kids having sex", "forced sex", "slavery", "abduction" and "people getting raped" on an iPad, cops said.
Their little victim was the second child they tried to grab from the store, having attempted to trick another little girl's mother.
The court heard how they used sweets and gave her Coca Cola to lure her out of the shop and onto the Metro while saying "don't worry, we'll get you to your mummy."
It was revealed the girls changed the child's hairstyle in an attempt to sneak her away.
Sentencing the Mr Justice Globe told them: "Neither of you has explained to my satisfaction your actions on the day in question."
He concluded that the toddler WAS going to be harmed by the girls or others had the police not found her, and added they had "evil intent".
He handed them three years and four months each in a youth jail, but refused a request for the girls to be publically named.
There was no visible reaction from the two girls as they were led away.
Their defence team sensationally claimed the younger girl had been groomed online by an older man who had suggested they kidnap a child.
They argued there was no suggestion they intended anything sinister, despite sick internet searches.
Barrister Julie Clemitson, who is representing the younger girl: “They may have been influenced by what was said online but what they did that day was of their own volition.
“Putting aside taking the girl away from her mother, they showed nothing but kindness to her."
Defence barrister for the 14-year-old Andrew Walker said: "There's no evidence she did it for a sinister purpose, for actually harming the child in any way at all."
The pair made 1,185 internet searches in the days leading up to the kidnap of which 402 were pornographic in nature, containing an “increasing level of violence, references to exploitation, slavery, torment, abduction and child sex.”
The mum of the tot was left frantic when she realised what had happened.
Sarah Barlow, prosecuting, said: "She was described by one witness as banging her head against a wall, she was so utterly distraught."
The court heard she still has nightmares about the incident.
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Sentencing proved tricky as the judge struggled to work out what their intentions were when they kidnapped the child.
Mr Justice Globe, who sat on the James Bulger’s trial, was played CCTV of the girls approaching shoppers.
Miss Barlow said the film demonstrated the two kidnappers were “working together, quite co-ordinated” and showed “a degree of planning or at least communication between the two”.
In both abduction attempts they picked on black children.
They walked off from the busy store in Northumberland Street, Newcastle, with the toddler sparking a panicked hunt.
They were found an hour and a half later, three miles away, after their descriptions were circulated in a major police operation.
The kidnapped child was reunited with her mum unharmed after the abductors were tracked by CCTV camera operators from the city centre, on to the Metro system and along Gosforth High Street, into a park.
They had also stolen dummies, baby milk and a bottle to use as part of their plan on April 13.
At a previous Youth Court hearing, District Judge Roger Elsey said he would send the case up to the Crown Court as his sentencing powers were not sufficient.
He said the girls would need more than 12 months intensive work with social services to reduce their risk of re-offending.
After the girls admitted the charges last month, the young victim's father said her mother will "never forget the guilt" of losing her.
He said: "Her mother was on the phone and our daughter was in her pram.
"They offered her sweets, she was hysterical and they got her out and started playing with her around the shop."
The teen defendants, who cannot be named for legal reasons, have no criminal record and have never been arrested or cautioned.
They were known to social services and had gone missing before.
The mum of murdered tot Jamie Bulger said the sick crime forced her to relive her own ordeal.
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