A Syrian refugee who was given a platform by the BBC in 2016 to promote mass immigration has been convicted of involvement in a grooming gang. Omar and Mohamed Badreddin, as well as Huzaefa Aleboud, were sentenced by a Newcastle court for committing multiple rapes of a 13-year-old girl. A fourth man, Hamoud Al Soaimi, was found guilty of sexual assault.
Between August 2018 and April 2019, the Badreddins, Huzaefa Aleboud, and Hamoud Al Soaimi abused, raped, and tortured their female victim. She told the Newcastle court the men had made her life a “living nightmare.” They threatened her into silence, saying they would either kill her or take her to another country if she did not comply.
The 2016 BBC Newsnight report presented the narrative of Syrian national Omar Badreddin in a sympathetic light, emphasizing the experiences and challenges faced by those displaced by conflict and their struggle to gain refugee status in Western nations. Badreddin was accused of sexual assault shortly after arriving in Great Britain, though he was acquitted of the charges.
“I felt she [the accuser] didn’t want foreigners in this country, and that is why she made up the whole story,” Badreddin told the BBC at the time, blaming racism for the sexual assault allegation. The Newsnight report, hosted by Katie Razzall, concurred with Badreddin, lamenting that in Great Britain, “plenty are suspicious of newcomers with their different customs and traditions.”
The BBC acknowledged its role in platforming Omar Badreddin, saying in a statement, “In any situation, the BBC can only report on the facts as they stand at the time, which is what we did in 2016. The Badreddins’ subsequent crimes are appalling, and we express our sincere sympathies to their victim.”
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