A schoolgirl was repeatedly raped by three men after they lured her into their car with the promise of a cigarette in an Asda car park, a court heard.
The men, Ivan Turtak, 38, Kevin Horvath, 25, and Ernest Gunar, 27, allegedly passed the child around ‘like a receptacle’ as they subjected her to sexual abuse, jurors were told.
The court sitting in Canterbury was told the men were ‘complete strangers’ to the girl who was ‘targeted and exploited’.
The accused men drove the hapless girl in Horvath’s Skoda to Turtak’s flat in Dover, Kent, after promising to give her a cigarette, the court was told.
It is alleged she was then taken to Gunar’s caravan on Arthur Street in Folkestone, Kent, where she was plied with illicit substances, subjected to more rape and other sexual acts.
It was said the men threatened to kill her if she tried to escape or call for help, and took a picture of her standing naked in a bathtub.
Turtak has pleaded guilty to taking an indecent image of a child but denies raping her, reports KentOnline.
Horvath admitted three charges of rape and one of assault by penetration of the girl but pleaded not guilty to sexual assault of a child.
Horvath allegedly abused the girl in his car, and the court heard she was not wearing her own clothes when police found her.
Tests revealed traces of crystal meth and THC – the psychoactive compound in cannabis – in her system.
On Monday, Prosecutor Hannah Llewellyn-Waters told the jury the defendants’ conduct towards the child was ‘callous, degrading, and exploitative’.
She described how the young girl was led to the car, plied with drugs and abused in her ‘vulnerable’ state.
The court was told the girl did not initially tell police the truth about the abuse when she spoke to them.
She instead told them she had been in Folkestone and, having not slept, changed into clothes she found in a charity donation bag left on the street.
When she was later challenged over this, it came to light that she had given various accounts to both her family, police and in an entry in her diary, including being attacked and abducted in a park.
The jury also heard the girl had been seen appearing to be ‘having fun’ with Horvath and Gunar at a hotel swimming pool, according to police enquiries.
Ms Llewellyn-Waters said while the child gave differing accounts, the central part of her claim that the defendants targeted her and gave her drugs to make her compliant for their sexual abuse still ran true.
