By Paul Bibby
Police conducting a routine graffiti operation have stumbled across a GoPro camera that was allegedly used to record the gang rape of a teenage girl in Sydney's west.
The footage allegedly depicts an unconscious or semi-conscious 16-year-old girl being raped by multiple offenders at a party in St Clair in May this year.
Police say up to eight males were in the room at the time of the offence, with a number of them sexually assaulting the teenager.
Detectives from the Child Abuse Squad conducted an investigation based on the footage. After initially pinpointing the location of the party, they then found the alleged victim and tracked down the alleged rapists.
On Wednesday they arrested a17-year-old boy, charging him with two counts of aggravated sexual assault in company, attempted aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated indecent assault and resisting police.
Four men aged between 22 and 25 were also arrested and have been charged with a range of offences including filming a person engaged in a private act, aggravated sexual assault in company, aggravated indecent assault and concealing an indictable offence.
The four men will appear in Penrith and Mount Druitt local courts on Thursday, while the teenager will appear in the Children's Court.
The acting Commander of the NSW Police Force's Child Abuse Squad, Detective acting Superintendent Peter Yeomans, told 2GB radio that the girl was slight in stature, and that police believed her drink had been spiked.
"There is one juvenile involved in this but it is predominantly adult males in their mid-20s, and they're filming a matter like this on a very young girl," acting Superintendent Yeomans said.
"And this girl is a very slight framed girl and these are very large framed men and, look, some of these adult males are married with children.
"It was quite obvious to investigators when viewing this footage that the child was either unconscious or semi-conscious during these assaults.
"There were a number of reasons why she didn't report the matter - her lack of memory at the time, also her fear of any reprisal."
The girl is now undergoing counselling.
Police said they were encouraging any victim of sexual assault to report the matter to police so it can be fully investigated and victims can be referred to counselling and support services.
With AAP