AS the terrified girl’s sobs and pleas for help filled the courtroom, a female dock officer appeared close to tears.
Judge Sylvia de Bertodano halted proceedings, telling prosecutor Shawn Williams she had seen enough.
I’ve covered dozens of high-profile trials and sentencing hearings during my 28-year career as a journalist.
I recall a veteran BBC reporter crying as she listened to Sarah Everard’s family speak at the Old Bailey sentencing of killer cop Wayne Couzens.
And I struggled to contain my emotions as prosecutors detailed how little Arthur Labinjo-Hughes was tortured by his dad and step-mum in Birmingham.
But the harrowing video shown in Warwick Crown Court yesterday afternoon ranks among my worst moments in a courtroom.
It was filmed by a petrified 15-year-old girl before and after she was raped by two Afghan asylum seekers in a UK park.
The footage, recorded on her mobile phone, helped snare evil 17-year-olds Jan Jahanzeb and Israr Niazal.
It proved she did not consent to what was taking place – and left them with no choice but to plead guilty to the sickening crime.
Niazal’s barrister Joshua Radcliffe had earlier warned the court the footage was “genuinely horrific”.
He added: “I have no doubt that if the general public were exposed to that, then we would have disorder on our hands.”
Having watched the entirety of the video, I wholeheartedly agree with Mr Radcliffe.
With immigration a hot topic in the social media age, the disturbing and heartbreaking footage would provoke fury across the country.
Fury that two child asylum seekers welcomed in the UK and being housed in taxpayer-funded accommodation were able to carry out the crime.
Fury at the distress they caused an innocent schoolgirl, who sobbed on camera “they are going to rape me” as she was led away from her friends.
And fury that nobody in well-heeled Leamington Spa came to her aid until it was too late.
As she said in a victim impact statement: “They day I was raped changed me as a person.”
‘CHANGED ME AS A PERSON’
Thankfully the public will never get to see the footage because it includes images of the girl’s face and the sound of her voice.
She has lifelong anonymity and publishing the video would breach strict reporting restrictions.
Instead it was left to the handful of journalists in court to document what the footage showed.
Mr Williams played it in two parts – the build-up to the attack and the aftermath of the rape.
It began with the girl being led away to a secluded area by Jahanzeb, who had spent the afternoon drinking vodka.
The sobbing youngster repeatedly screams: “Help, I don’t want to go to the park.”
At one point a woman is heard asking: “Are you alright?”
The girl, clearly fearing for her life, replies: “No, help me. Please help me.”
But tragically, as the court heard, the woman inexplicably failed to intervene.
Instead Jahanzeb continued to force her towards Newbold Comyn park.
He is heard on the video speaking on the phone to Niazal in his native Pashto, telling him to “come along”.
The girl, realising what is about to happen, screams: “I want to go home. Please, please.
“Help me, help me, You’re going to rape me!”
STUNNED SILENCE
Moments later the Afghan pair forced the girl to the floor and orally raped her.
In the second half of the video, the hysterical girl – now alone – films herself staggering away from the scene of the attack.
She is heard sobbing: “Oh my god, I’ve just got f***ing kidnapped.”
She repeatedly shouts and screams for help but nobody comes to her aid.
“Every single one of these people are driving past me,” she sobs.
“I thought I was going to be dead. Help me, someone, please, please help me.
“Why is no-one helping me? Please, someone.”
There was a stunned silence in court as the three-minute video suddenly ended.
As Mr Williams began to play it for a second time, Judge de Bertodano intervened.
She told him: “This is highly distressing. Frankly, I think we have seen enough.”
Small boat migrants Jahanzeb and Niazal now face years behind bars for what they did on that May evening.
Jahanzeb faces certain deportation when he is freed.
But Niazal could still be granted asylum because he was only 16 when he pleaded guilty to the crime.
After sitting through the harrowing video footage, it was impossible not to be left furious at that prospect.
