Two young cousins have been locked up for more than 25 years after seeking out sex workers to rape in Huddersfield.
Lucas Sienkiewicz was only 17 and his cousin Daniel just 16 and newly-arrived from Poland, when they twice went to the red light area of the town in the space of six weeks, each time targeting a woman they found there.
Kama Melly QC prosecuting told Leeds Crown Court the pair had made a “planned and pre-meditated decision to rape a sex worker.”
The first was on October 13 last year when they approached one woman and offered her £30 for oral sex. She usually went to a specific place but they rejected that and said they wanted to go somewhere more remote.
Lucas gave her £15 and said she would be given the rest afterwards. She performed oral sex on the younger cousin before Lucas told her she was to have sex with him.
She told them she needed to have the money first and when they did not pay her she decided to leave. She only got round the corner when they caught up with her.
She was grabbed by her hair and dragged into an alley off Alder Street where she was pushed against a wall.
She knew what was going to happen and was terrified. She was begging them to stop saying she had done nothing wrong, but first Lucas raped her without using a condom, watched by Daniel, then they swapped over and Daniel raped her while Lucas watched.
She met up with another sex worker and when they were approached by workers from the SWEET project, a charitable organisation supporting street workers she revealed what had happened to her.
They could see she was physically shaking and crying and took her back to their base and contacted the police. She later described the attack as the worst experience of her life saying she thought she was going to die.
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A month later in November the cousins returned and stopped a sex worker who had only recently returned to the streets to try and make some money for Christmas presents and to pay her utility bills.
She took them to an area between two buildings on an industrial estate where Lucas began looking through his pockets.
“She said to him ‘Don’t tell me you have no money. At that point Lucas grabbed hold of her and threw her against a wall.”
She realised she was in danger and tried to placate them by saying: “Come on, you’re good guys, you’re not rapists”.
She was ordered to the floor and Lucas then raped her twice. Miss Melly said the victim got the impression that Daniel, who was not speaking English was saying something like “Come on, leave it” but Lucas was instigating for him to do so as well.
She got a condom for the younger attacker but Lucas took it from her and threw it on the ground. Daniel then carried out a sex act.
“All she was thinking of during the attack was whether she would ever return home,” said Miss Melly.
“She wondered if they would beat her, kill her or set her on fire. She described the attack as terrifying.”
Miss Melly said police inquiries into the attacks looked at CCTV footage, phone evidence and DNA to prove the attacks by the teenagers. She said both victims had suffered psychologically and it “exposes the myth that rape has less impact on sex workers than other women.”
Sobia Ahmed representing Lucas, said he was still young and he had found it very difficult to face up to the gravity of his actions but now accepted that he had done wrong and “his conduct has been abhorrent.”
“He has expressed to me he that he is sorry for what he has done.”
Robin Frieze, for Daniel Sienkiewicz, said he had only recently arrived in the UK shortly before the offences and did not speak English which would make his sentence even more difficult for him than his older cousin.
His parents had been horrified by his actions and understood the effect on the victims.
Lucas Sienkiewicz, now 18, of Walpole Road, Crosland Moor, admitted three charges of rape and was sent to a young offender institution for 14 years.
Daniel Sienkiewicz, now 17, also of Walpole Road, admitted two offences of rape and was given 11 years three months detention. Both were ordered to register as sex offenders for life.
Judge Tom Bayliss QC said he had reduced the sentences because of their youth and guilty pleas “But these were planned, determined and violent attacks on highly vulnerable victims.”
He said Lucas was the dominant participant in “these terrible offences” but his cousin had willingly joined in what happened.
In the first attack they had watched each other rape their victim after swapping places. “It was a violent, sustained and degrading incident.”
He commended the police officers involved in the inquiry for their “work was exceptional and brought to justice these two men.”
