Drugs and Kids > and Romanian and Albanian groomers in the UK

 

Girl 'made to have sex with men in UK park'

1 day ago

A teenage girl was made to have sex with multiple men in a park, a grooming trial has heard.

The girl, who told police she was repeatedly sexually abused by a gang of men while aged 14 and 15, said she felt like she had "no say" and people had "taken advantage" of her problems, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

In police interviews shown to jurors, the girl said she was 14 when she was first approached in Saltwell Park, Gateshead, by Leonard Paun, then aged about 17 and now aged 23.

He is one of six men, who are being assisted in court by Romanian and Albanian translators, who deny offences including rape and commissioning child sex offences against six girls aged between 13 and 16.

The crimes the men are accused of are said to have taken place in Gateshead between 2015 and 2019.

In the police recordings played to the court, the girl said Mr Paun gave her cocaine and told her she could "make lots of money" as a "sex girl" back in his native Romania.

Over the following days and weeks she would meet Mr Paun for more drugs and he would introduce her to his "friends", the court heard.

She recalled how the other men would "look at [her] funny" and talk about how "pretty" she was, while Mr Paun "would just let them do what they wanted".

The girl, who the court previously heard said she had been raped by several men including Mr Paun while "off her face" on drugs, said the meetings with his friends happened in the park and then at various houses and flats.

She recalled one time in the park when she met at least four men who she was "made" to have sex with.

On another occasion she was held up by one of the men while being attacked because drugs and alcohol had made it impossible for her to stand unaided, the girl said.

'Made me do stuff'

When asked by the interviewing officer if she had consented to the sexual acts, the girl said: "I didn't say 'yeah you can do it'. I didn't have a say in it, but then I didn't say no.

"I just feel like I couldn't say anything because I felt scared."

When asked what she was "scared" about, the girl replied: "They could actually kill us, or they could just leave us there."

Reflecting on events several years later, the girl said she felt like "some people have taken advantage of the way I was at the time".

She said they never asked her for sex as they would have got a "straight up no", but "if they wanted, they had it".

The girl said Mr Paun gave his friend, Codrin Dura, 26, her number and he started messaging her about meeting up, the court heard.

When they did meet, Mr Dura also gave her cocaine before raping her, the jury was told.

She said she continued to see him as she wanted more cocaine, but he "started making me do stuff" before giving her more drugs, the court heard.

The girl described encounters with Mr Dura as "not a nice experience at all".

The defendants, all from Gateshead, face the following charges:

Codrin Dura, 26, in relation to two girls, denies eight counts of rape, three counts of sexual activity with a child, attempted rape, sexual assault, blackmail, arranging the commission of a child sex offence and supplying a class A drug

Leonard Paun, 23, in relation to two girls, denies five counts of rape, sexual activity with a child, two counts of arranging the commission of a child sex offence, supplying Class A drugs, sexual assault and distributing indecent photographs of a child

Ionut Mihai, 28, denies three counts of rape in relation to one girl

Bogdan Gugiuman, 44, denies four counts of rape and one of supplying a Class A drug in relation to one girl

Klaudio Aleksiu, 28, denies two counts of rape and supplying a Class A drug in relation to one girl

Stefan Ciuraru, 22, in relation to five girls, denies four counts of sexual assault, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and sexual activity with a child

The trial continues.

Drugs and Kids > Kids consume marijuana edibles at school and become violently ill in Halifax

 

Mother says package presenting cannabis like ‘treat’

put children in N.S. hospital

By Staff  The Canadian Press

Posted March 25, 2024 7:05 am

 Updated March 25, 2024 7:06 am

 4 min read

An alarming incident that occurred at a Halifax school is serving as a reminder for parents to keep cannabis

products out of reach of children. Police are investigating after five elementary school students were taken

to a nearby hospital as a result of consuming cannabis products that were brought to the school.

The mother of a nine-year-old boy says packaging that depicts highly potent

cannabis as a “treat” led her son and several classmates at a Halifax school

to consume them and become violently ill earlier this week.

Katrina MacDonald, a health-care worker, said in an interview Friday her son threw up multiple times and had to be rushed to the emergency department, while the mother of another child — who spoke on the condition of anonymity — said her child was taken to intensive care for treatment before stabilizing.

MacDonald said she saw four children in hospital due to ingesting the edible, while Halifax police have said five children are believed to have swallowed the product.

The school sent MacDonald an image of the package of “strawberry/grape” edibles branded as “Nerd Bites” that was found at the school after the children became ill.

It has a picture of brightly coloured candies on a green, grassy background, and in small letters underneath indicates to “keep out of the reach of children.”

The 43-year-old mother of three said her son and three other children ate the cannabis just before their recess, after they were offered “gummies” by a classmate who had brought the package to school.

MacDonald says the packaging is dangerous for children her son’s age who are unaware of the potential danger of cannabis. She said when she arrived at the school her boy was delirious, anxious and crying. The usually healthy child vomited seven times, had a decreased heart rate and his blood pressure fell as emergency staff provided him with fluids intravenously.

“It was incredibly scary,” she said.

She said after she saw the photo of the packaging of the product, which was sent to her while her son was in hospital to assist with his treatment, she felt “a sense of disbelief.”

“It looks eerily similar to a package of treats that any parent would buy for their child … There’s a small label at the bottom which says THC, but … my child didn’t know what THC was,” she said.

Dr. Bruce Crooks, a pediatric oncologist/hematologist at the IWK children’s hospital in Halifax, said the amount of cannabis the children were reported to have consumed — about 200 milligrams each — is “a huge dose,” that’s roughly 20 times the amounts an adult might take as a recreational dose.

He said the drug can cause brain activity to be depressed in children to the level where they may have to be admitted to intensive care and provided ventilation and other life supports.

A spokeswoman for the Nova Scotia Liquor Corp., the only licensed distributor of cannabis products in the province, says it only buys from licensed producers who are regulated by Health Canada and the federal Cannabis Act. The law generally prohibits the promotion of cannabis, and packaging is to adhere to strict requirements including labelling, child-resistant containers and plain packaging that must not appeal to youth, Terah McKinnon wrote in an email.

However, Crooks said products like Nerd Bites are being ordered online and delivered to households by mail.

“Like gummies, they look like candy, they look like energy drinks, they look like any other products that you can have. And the packaging is specifically designed to be appealing,” he said.

MacDonald said she believes what happened to her child “could happen to any family.” She said schools need to set up a protocol for handling situations when such a product is brought into the school. “Schools may have to start educating children about the dangers at a younger age,” she added.

A Health Canada spokeswoman who was asked for comment sent a link to existing federal cannabis regulations, which say that edible cannabis packaging should be “child resistant” and “plain.” The label also “must not be appealing to youth.”

The Canadian Press was unable to reach the manufacturer of Nerd Bites.

The Canadian Paediatric Society has warned since the legalization of cannabis that the number of young children needing medical care after ingesting the drug has been on the rise. In 2019, the society recommended to the Liberal government “that any product resembling candy/sweets or appealing to children be prohibited.”

Authors of a federal review of the Cannabis Act published last week say that while the creation of a regulated, legal market has decreased illegal online sales, there continue to be problems with enforcement of regulations.

“We are concerned with … the relative ease with which unauthorized online sellers operate,” the report says.

The parents of the child who brought the edibles to school should be charged with child endangerment and social services should consider removing the child from the home. 

NS needs to pass a law making it illegal to purchase such products with a significant penalty and the presence of children in the home an aggravating factor.

Are edibles really necessary to begin with? Are they more important than our children.