LEWISHAM: Minister's daughter forced to have sex

4:28pm Wednesday 8th January 2003

Two men, who took part in the gang rape of a church minister's daughter, face years behind bars after a jury found them guilty.

The 15-year-old virgin was dragged off the street and into Eric Gichovi's home, in Lethbridge Close, Lewisham, on March 9 last year.

The 19-year-old kept the girl as a prisoner while he and two friends forced her to have sex, the Old Bailey heard.

Gichovi and a 20-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, both claimed the girl had consented and denied all charges against them.

But a jury unanimously convicted the Greenwich 20-year-old of two charges of rape.

Gichovi, convicted on one rape change, was cleared of another.

Judge Giles Forrester told the pair: "For an offence of this gravity, you are facing long custodial sentences."

Gichovi, the 20-year-old and a third man, who has never been traced, were interrupted by the girl's friends and family hammering on the door.

They had become concerned when she had vanished, one of them had overheard Gichovi telling her where he lived, earlier that evening.

The trio fled Gichovi's flat, he was arrested later that evening, the 20-year-old was caught three months later after DNA evidence linked him to the attack.