Four years for torture teenagers

The attack happened in a car park at the Omni Centre

Three youths who tortured a 14-year-old girl in a car park and filmed the attack on a mobile phone have each been sentenced to four years' detention.

The two 14-year-old girls and a 13-year-old boy stripped their victim naked and hit her with stiletto heels during the 45-minute ordeal in January.

The boy compared the aftermath of the attack in Edinburgh to a scene from Resident Evil.

Judge Lord Malcolm said it had been an attack of "uncontrolled cruelty".

The three teenagers, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were sentenced to four years' detention, followed by a further five years' supervision.

The trio had earlier admitted assaulting their teenage victim to her severe injury and to the danger of her life at the car park at the Omni Centre in Greenside Place, and filming the attack.

As a result of your uncontrolled cruelty and violence your victim's life was in real danger Lord Malcolm High Court in Edinburgh

The victim's family said they were pleased by the outcome and that the sentence was better than they had hoped for.

Passing sentence at the High Court in Edinburgh, Lord Malcolm said: "The prolonged torture and abuse inflicted by you on a young person has created a sense of shock, horror and perhaps of 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."

'Break her jaw'

The judge said background reports showed that for each of the attackers one or more factors applied.

They included "a chaotic, abusive and violent home background" characterised by parental neglect and the absence of appropriate guidelines; active involvement in Edinburgh's youth gang culture; underage drinking; and "disengagement from education".

During the attack, the boy, from Edinburgh, taunted the victim and filmed the violence on his mobile phone.

He told one of the female attackers to "get her naked" and encouraged them in the attack, saying at one stage: "Break her jaw".

Video footage showed the victim slumped against a wall which was covered in blood.

The boy was heard saying "it's like Resident Evil" - a reference to the horror film and computer game of the same name.

The naked, blood-stained victim managed to make her way upstairs to the leisure complex after the attack in the underground car park.

She was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary where casualty doctors found she was covered from head to toe in dried blood.

She was found to have six two-centimetre wounds on the back on her head, which had been inflicted with stiletto heels.

The girl spent almost a week in hospital recovering from her injuries.