A march has taken place in Sunderland to protest alleged police inaction after a young mother reported being drugged, raped, and assaulted by a group of migrant men.
The mainstream press initially reported the arrest and bail of six men from Iraq, Syria, and Bahrain after local woman Chelsey Wright, 26, reported a “serious assault”.
However, it is alleged the men all escaped charges and local police failed to investigate the incident properly.
In an interview with The Rebel Media’s Tommy Robinson, Ms. Wright describes waking up in a locked room with a strange man of Turkish appearance who laughed at her and banged her head against the wall when she tried to escape.
Ms. Wright says she managed to get out of the room when the first man unlocked the door to let another man in, but was kicked down the stairs when she attempted to flee. She says a number of men attempted to restrain her as she made for the front door, dragging her back into the house by her hair in the presence of a witness when she got outside.
She was able to escape the house a second time and reach safety, and was examined at a sexual assault clinic the same day. She claims forensics yielded two semen samples, only one of which could be properly tested, as well as traces of the date rape drug Rohypnol in her blood.
Chief Inspector Paul Milner described Ms Wright as having woken up “in a strange address in Peel Street with cuts and bruises” near the time of the incident. She describes “horrible” bruises around her groin, “whip marks” across the back of her legs, and her arms being “black” where she had been grabbed by the men, as well as handprints on her neck and a footprint on her back.
Robinson appeared to corroborate part of Ms. Wright’s story speaking to a witness over the phone. The witness said she had heard screaming before looking out the window and seeing the young woman being dragged back into the house by the accused migrants, before running out again and falling down in the street, barefoot.
With no-one facing charges for the alleged attack, the Justice for Chelsey group claims the police failed to take statements from witnesses or to secure key evidence such as items of clothing lost at the house.
Ms. Wright and Robinson are reported to have hand-delivered a petition addressed to Police and Crime Commissioner Dame Vera Baird and signed by some 50,000 people to Sunderland Police at the end of the march.
Robinson is best known as the founder and former leader of the controversial English Defence League street protest organisation – although he left the group in 2013, citing concerns that it had been infiltrated by extremists.
Another Justice for Chelsey demonstration will be held on June 10th 2017, according to his Twitter account.