Two illegal immigrants have been jailed for their part in the sickening gang rape of a British teenager

Blackpool Today:

Puppy Parmar and Sandeep Chauhan now face being deported after being sentenced to a total of almost 14 years.

The pair were said to use their 16-year-old victim as a "sexual plaything" and were told by a judge how their crimes were "so heinous", their staying in the UK would be to the "detriment of society".

Preston Crown Court heard how the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been drinking and taking drugs on Wednesday July 20 last year when she and a friend went from South Shore into the town centre.

There, they came across four men – two of who were the defendants – and ended up back at the Taj Mahal restaurant on Albert Road.

The girls were plied with more drink until one of the men, known only as Kamal, took the victim to an attic room and threw her on to a mattress on the floor.

Robert Jones, prosecuting, told the court the girl was then raped by all four men while she lay almost unconscious from the drink.

Shocked and upset from what she had just witnessed, her friend ran away to Bonny Street police station to raise the alarm.

Mr Jones said the victim's life had been turned upside down by what had gone on.

Parmar, 31,of Otago Street, Glasgow, who arrived in Britain in the back of a truck after fleeing ethnic violence in his native Kashmir, was arrested by immigration officers in Scotland and handed over to Blackpool police when his DNA matched samples found on the victim.

Christopher Hudson, defending Parmar, told the court his client had been tortured in his homeland and seen his family murdered.

He fled to Britain and had been working at the Taj Mahal for three weeks prior to the incident, living in a flat above.

He admitted being drunk on the night of the offence and told police in his interview, he thought the victim had consented to sex with Kamal and so believed she would consent with him.

Chauhan, 28, of Central Drive, Blackpool, the court heard, left his family in India to come to Britain to make money.

He arrived on a visitor's visa, but failed to apply to stay permanently when that expired.

He, too, worked at the restaurant and was the second man to attack the girl. Eventually, it was he who let the victim's friend go and get help.

Sentencing Parmar to seven years and three months and Chauhan to six years and five months, Judge Andrew Gilbart said: "You were adult men and she a teenager. A very drunk teenager.

"Your victim became an abused sexual plaything to the four of you."

Det Sgt Darryl Turner, of Blackpool police's Awaken Project, said: "The severity of the sentences indicates the extremely serious nature of the offence."

More evidence of the harm that illegal immigration does to a country.