A Syrian who was featured on Newsnight has been charged along with three other Syrian migrants of sexual assault on two 14 year old girls. Police have been accused of “covering up” the attack after failing to report it to the public.
Four Syrian migrants have been charged for the sex attack on the teenagers in a Newcastle park. Omar Badreddin, 18, Mohammed Alfrouh, 20, and Mohammad Allakkoud, 18, all pleaded not guilty at Newcastle Crown Court on Friday. A 16 year old has also been charged but has yet to enter a plea.
The paper reported that police were accused of burying the allegations that a gang of Syrian migrants sexually assaulted two young girls. Despite the fact Northumbria Police claims to have made sexual violence a top priority, the force announced the case to neither the public nor the press.
The Daily Mail reported that Northumbria Police did, however, publish more than 1oo incidents and public appeals, including sexual assaults, in the same month as the alleged attacks, on its website but not the case involving the Syrian migrants. Crimes the force did publicise included “cannabis compost” being given to a garden group, the theft of wetsuits and students attacked in the same park as the 14 year old girls.
A spokesman for the force claimed there had been “no need” to publicise the investigation as it was resolved quickly.
The Prime Minister last year announced plans to resettle 20,000 Syrians in Britain, the initial outlay alone costing over half a billion pounds. The Labour Party demanded Britain take far more migrants and urged it be done “immediately” rather than over a period of 5 years. Green Party leader Natalie Bennett, meanwhile, argued that the UK has a “humanitarian responsibility” to take 240,000 migrants “fleeing war”, including people not only from Syria but also Afghanistan and Eritrea.
The British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) flagship news programme, Newsnight, showed Omar Badreddin and his family sympathetically as they arrived in Newcastle. They apparently “fled” from the Syrian capital of Damascus, where there is little fighting.
The Daily Mail reported that in a video clip, which the BBC has now deleted from its iPlayer service and YouTube account, Newsnight said it would be “introducing you to the second family from Syria who we’ll be following. They’ve just arrived in Newcastle.”
Mr Badreddin and his family were judged “vulnerable” by the UN. As of March 2016, 1,602 migrants have arrived in Britain as part of the UN’s resettlement programme. Those brought here have been screened and vetted by the UN and have been given indefinite leave to remain. This means they can stay forever as the UN has judged that there is no hope of them ever returning home.
UKIP leader Nigel Farage — who has been slammed as “racist” for warning that mass migration poses risks to women, pointing to the 1,000 women who were sexually assaulted on just one night in Cologne — said:
“Serious questions need to be asked about both the vetting of those the Government are allowing into the country, and of the authorities, including the BBC, who appear to have been involved in a conspiracy of silence over the case.
“When did they know what was happening, and why is it only coming out now?”
Newsnight reported on the case on Friday, presenter Evan Davis telling viewers: “We have to report things have taken a disturbing turn. The teenage son was in court today charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.”
While a spokesman for the programme claimed they were “not aware of the allegations against Omar Badreddin at the time of his first court appearance in May so could not have covered it then,” a police source claimed the BBC had known for several weeks:
“When police arrested one of the individuals involved they were aware he was part of this [resettlement] programme so they thought it only right they contact Newsnight and make them aware.”
The three adults will appear in court at North Tyneside Magistrates on 26 September while the 16 year old will be tried at a separate youth court on 29 September.
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