Five individuals — four men and a teenage boy — have been arrested in connection with the gang-rape of a 16-year-old girl at a Sydney house party earlier in the year, New South Wales Police have said.
The incident was filmed on a GoPro-style camera, which was later seized by authorities in relation to an anti-graffiti operation. The sexual assault was discovered by police when viewing footage from the device.
The party took place in the working-class Western Sydney suburb of St. Clair in May of this year, a NSW Police media release said.
Police say that up to eight males were in the room when the girl was assaulted, with a number of them sexually assaulting the girl. As of Wednesday, police had arrested four men in their twenties and one 17-year-old boy.
Charges range from “aggravated sexual assault in company,” to “filming a person engaged in a private act.” The underage suspect was also charged with resisting arrest.
One of the suspects was charged only with concealment of a “serious indictable offense.”
A police spokesperson told Australian media that the girl was undergoing counseling and was likely unconscious or semi-conscious during the ordeal.
“It was quite obvious to investigators when viewing this footage that the child was either unconscious or semi-conscious during these assaults,” Detective Chief Inspector Peter Yeomans, from the Child Abuse Squad said.
The teen did not report the rape at the time of the incident.