Three boys convicted of gang-raping girl, 13

They stripped her on the ninth floor of the Bermondsey block after she had arrived thinking she was attending an after-school club.

She was found sobbing in the street by her father who had been scouring the area when she failed to come home in September last year.

The schoolboys from Bermondsey — two 16 and one aged 15 — were found guilty of a series of sex offences and aiding and abetting each other in the attack. Tom Wilkins, prosecuting, told the court a fourth youth, who was cleared of any charges, had arranged to meet the girl at the tower block.

It was alleged he had been the first of the group to turn on her after she refused to have sex with him but the court heard he then left.

Mr Wilkins said the three rapists then appeared, grabbing her wrist to stop her leaving. One said: "Let's have sex."

Mr Wilkins told the jury: "She told him she didn't want to, but he said she was going nowhere."

Another boy then rifled through her bag, before pulling her onto his lap and demanding she perform a sex act.

"She covered her face but he proceeded to slap her in the face," added the prosecutor. A third boy pulled a knife, held it to her face, and said: "Do what he tells you."

Mr Wilkins added: "The three boys were acting as a group to intimidate her into sex — one threatening her, another holding her.

"When the knife was produced she had to cooperate."

She was passed from one to another, before being stripped of her lower clothes and raped. Eventually they let her go.

"Her parents thought she was at an after-school club and became increasingly concerned when she did not return when they expected," said Mr Wilkins. "Her father found her as he was driving around in his car."

Judge Patricia Lees will sentence them at Inner London crown court next month.