Aylesbury child sex abuse: 'bad parenting made girls vulnerable'

Poor parenting made young girls vulnerable to sexual abuse committed by a gang of men in Buckinghamshire, a senior British judge said during sentencing.

Judge John Bevan QC said the attackers, who were all of Asian descent, may have targeted white girls because of the opportunity presented by "inadequate parenting leading to rebellious children".

He made the comments as he sentenced six members of a paedophile ring in Aylesbury to a total of 82 years in prison for their roles in the child abuse, The Times reports.

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The abuse occurred between 2006 and 2012 and included multiple rapes of a child under 13, child prostitution and administering a substance to "stupefy" a girl in order to engage in sexual activity.

The men groomed the vulnerable girls from troubled backgrounds for sex "for the price of a McDonald's, a milkshake and cinema ticket," said Judge Bevan. He added that if the men pursued Asian under-age girls, "they would have paid a heavy price in their community."

Other judges have drawn anger from campaign groups by criticising the victim's behaviour rather than that of the perpetrator.

Last year, Judge Mary Jane Mowat was condemned by charities after she said that the rape conviction rate would only improve when women "stop getting drunk".

In a similar incident earlier this year, Justice Males said an 18-year old student who was raped by two men was "extremely foolish" for getting so drunk she was left vulnerable and defenceless.