Overview

• At Liverpool Crown Court on June 26, Judge Simon Medland suspended sentences of eight months for Hesketh and eleven months each for Linfoot and Rae, with all three ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and rehabilitation activity.
• Prosecutors heard that Callum Hesketh groomed the 15-year-old through social media in 2018 before filming her assault and broadcasting it with the caption ‘GANG BANG OUT HERE.’
• Thomas Rae arrived at the van on a motorbike during the attack and committed oral rape after Hesketh and Michael Linfoot had started abusing the victim.
• Police treated the incident as part of Operation Pavarotti but confirmed it was unrelated to a previous trial that saw ten other men convicted of abusing the same girl between 2016 and 2018.
• In an impact statement read to the court, the victim described enduring profound emotional harm and feeling ‘broken in a way that nobody can see.’