Teenage girls in England held a protest outside the gates of a school in Kent on Tuesday, demonstrating against an alleged rape of a fellow student involving four Afghan asylum seekers on the school’s premises.
The incident saw four suspects, all of whom were Afghan asylum seekers determined to be of school age, arrested by police, who conducted an investigation into the alleged assault.
In a statement, Kent Police revealed the suspects had been released without charge.
“Kent Police carried out a full, thorough, and sensitive investigation into the incident which reportedly involved a teenage girl and a teenage boy on Monday, Feb. 6, 2023.
“No evidence of a criminal offense having taken place has been established and no further action is to be taken, unless any relevant additional information is received.”
At the time of the arrests, the victim was interviewed by specialist officers. The Sun newspaper reported the victim was “distressed” by the unproven attack and eventually withdrew her cooperation from the police inquiry without public explanation.
Schoolgirls at the Astor School in Dover took to the school gates on Tuesday in protest at the school’s decision to allow the suspects back into the educational facility.
With hand prints on their chests and red paint on their faces, one protester can be seen telling an interviewer in video footage on social media that the school thinks “it’s not that serious because they’ve let those boys come back into our school without an issue.”
Asked whether the alleged victim has returned to school, one girl replied: “No, because she’s frightened. She’s traumatized. As a community, we are terrified for ourselves and for that girl.”
The girls were asked about the unproven attack and whether it took place on school premises, to which one girl replied: “Yes, allegedly, and nothing has been done about that. No one has taken into consideration that the boys will do it again. (The school’s) main concern is us causing a riot.”
The protesters also demonstrated outside Dover police station holding placards that read, “Educate your sons,” and, “My body, my choice.”
Local Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke commented on the protests in a tweet: “Concerns have been expressed about personal safety by many students at a Dover school. These are such serious matters that I have raised them directly with the Policing Minister and the Kent Police and Crime Commissioners today.”
Alex Phillips, a political advisor for the Reform UK party, called the protest a “powder keg.”
“What’s done to ensure men from other cultures adopt our values? The protection of girls is far more important than the offense. We should have learned from grooming gangs,” she added.