A schoolgirl who was brutally raped and beaten by a gang of nine boys spoke today of how the ordeal has destroyed her life.
The 15-year-old said the ordeal in a tower block in Hackney, east London, has left her without her former friends, unable to leave her house for fear of crowds and "being punished for something I haven't done".
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I can't go out, I can't really do nothing.
"Everything I used to do, like going shopping and ice skating, I can't do that now because of all the crowds. I've got a fear of crowds and gangs of people. Everything has changed. I had to leave all my friends behind and school."
Last week, the nine gang members responsible were jailed for her rape, kidnap and false imprisonment.
Judge Wendy Joseph QC lifted an anonymity order and named the seven members of the gang led by O'Neil "Hitman" Denton. All were aged between 14 and 17.
The girl, who was 14 at the time, was dragged between three tower blocks in east London, raped, and beaten up by the Kingshold Boys gang.
The judge at east London's Snaresbrook Crown Court described their acts as "designed to degrade and humiliate and to send out a message to her and to others that no one messed with these boys".
In an interview with a Today reporter, she described the ordeal: "They pushed me off into the corner and they were saying again I were to do what they wanted and when I said 'No, I'm not doing it', they were threatening me with the knife and the other boy was kicking me.
"They were saying if you just do what we want, then you can go. You think about it - you think, well, they've got a knife, there's four of them, you can't really do nothing and if that's the only way, then you have to do it and so I done what they wanted.
"I was begging them and saying 'Please, I'm still a virgin' and they said 'You ain't going to be one any more, are you?"'
She described how on several occasions her attack was disturbed by members of the public.
When a female passer-by approached, she said: "They put a coat around my legs and were like 'If you ask for help or anything, we know people who know where you live and we'll come back for you' and so I kept quiet, but I was still crying and she could see me and didn't help me."
The young victim described how at one point she spotted an acquaintance, who she hoped would rescue her. Instead he joined in the assault.
She said: "After everyone had got what they wanted, they moved away and I saw this boy sitting on the stairs that I knew, so I went up to him and I was like 'Can you help me please?'.
"He just looked at me and laughed in my face and he asked me what I was doing here and I said 'I didn't want to be here, they brought me here'. And he said 'Ugh, you're a slag, you deserve to be here'."
She pleaded with him for help but she said his response was: "No, I can't, I'm with my boys now."
Describing the gang mentality and attitude towards women, she said: "Most of them don't have respect for any girls. A couple of them that I knew would hit girls and didn't think anything of it.
"When they're all in a gang, they do act a lot different because if you knew some of them individually, they seem so different and nice - until you see them in a gang and you think that's not how they really are."
Her attackers Denton and Weiled Ibrahim, 17, who admitted rape, kidnap and false imprisonment on April 30 last year, were given indeterminate detention orders and told they would have to serve a minimum of three years and eight months before becoming eligible for parole.
They will also have to remain "on licence" for life.
Yusuf Raymond, 16, pleaded guilty to the same charges, and received a nine-year sentence.
Six other defendants, who were variously convicted by a jury of the offences, were also dealt with.
Jayden Ryan, 16, was given eight years; Alexander Vanderpuije, 15, six years; Jack Bartle, 16, six years; and Cleon Brown, 15, six years.
The last two, aged 14 and 16, who still cannot be named, did not physically attack the girl but helped prevent her escaping.
The first was sentenced to two years and five months in secure local authority accommodation while the second got a three year and nine months detention order.
All the defendants were ordered to register as sex offenders indefinitely, apart from the youngest, who was told he would have to sign for three-and-a-half years.
Read more from the Independent.