Image copyright Kent Police Image caption (L-R) Shershah Muslimyar, Rafiullah Hamidy and Tamin Rahmani were jailed for 14 years each

Three men and a boy raped a girl who had asked them for directions when she got lost on a night out with friends.

The girl, 16, who cannot be named, was trying to get to a friend's house in Ramsgate, Kent, when she was attacked and then dumped on the street.

They fulfilled their "depraved sexual desires" on the 16-year-old girl, Canterbury Crown Court heard.

Three of the men were each jailed for 14 years each and a 17-year-old boy was jailed for seven years.

The girl was found crying in the street by two people returning from a night out.

Rafiullah Hamidy, 24, of High Street, Herne Bay, Shershah Muslimyar, 21, of Hovenden Close, Canterbury, Tamin Rahmani, 38, of Northwood Road, Ramsgate, and the 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, all denied rape but were found guilty by a jury in May.

'Prolonged and degrading

Sentencing, Judge Heather Norton said the girl had been trying to make her way on foot back to a friend's house having missed the last train home, and was "young, drunk, disorientated and vulnerable".

She said the girl thought the four were going to help her, but instead they "took her up to a bedroom, pushed her on to a mattress and repeatedly raped her" over a sustained period.

Image copyright Kent Police Image caption Rafiullah Hamidy fled to Italy after raping the teenage girl

Judge Norton said the girl had been clear that while she was being raped, others were in the room watching.

Describing it as a prolonged attack in degrading circumstances, she told the defendants: "This was an appalling and repeated gang rape of a vulnerable girl who had sought your assistance."

They attacked the girl at Rahmani's home in the early hours of 18 September 2016.

He owns 555 Pizza and Kebab in Northwood Road, Ramsgate, and is in the UK under a spousal visa.

Hamidy fled to Taranto in southern Italy after the attack where he was detained by local officers.

He was returned to the UK following an extradition hearing and taken into custody at Heathrow Airport on 28 March.

After the hearing, Det Insp Richard Vickery said the men "saw an opportunity to fulfil their depraved sexual desires and betrayed the trust she placed in them in the worst possible way".