THE SENTENCING of a group of drug-addled youngsters who tortured a woman was derailed after the lynchpin of the group contracted covid.

Sonny Weir is said to have been one of the quartet encouraging others in the orgy of bullying violence in a Banbury flat that culminated with the victim being raped by co-defendant Alexander Azevedo while Weir and Natasha Washington, all 20, romped in a next-door bedroom.

The gang stubbed cigarettes out on the woman’s skin, force-fed her heroin and cut her hair.

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The three adults and a 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were due to be sentenced at Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday after they were found guilty last month of a range of offences including false imprisonment, force-feeding her heroin and assault.

Three members of the jury returned to court to watch the sentencing hearing, which was expected to last two hours.

But Judge Nigel Daly was forced to adjourn the case, telling the three jurors that Weir had contracted covid behind bars and the prison was unable to bring him to court in person or put him in a video link room in HMP Bullingdon.

The judge said: “Unfortunately, it looks like we’ve been taken down by covid yet again. You may wonder why it is I can’t sentence the three that are present today in the absence of Mr Weir.

“It is always better in circumstances where you have got a number of people, all involved and many of whom are jointly charged particularly as you know on the false imprisonment and some of the individual assaults are jointly charged [for defendants], to be sentenced together.”

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He added that defendants had the right to know what their co-defendants and the prosecution were saying about them, which was most effectively achieved by everybody being sentenced at the same time.

Adjourning the case until May 20, Judge Daly re-bailed the 17-year-old defendant. But he warned the boy’s barrister, Julian Lynch, of the likelihood of a custodial sentence: “He must be aware of the likely sentence and the nature of the likely sentence he is going to receive.”

Azevedo, 20, of Britannia Wharf, Banbury, was convicted of rape, false imprisonment, administering heroin and ABH. He was found not guilty of one count of ABH and administering Valium.

Weir, 20, of Pope Walk, Banbury, was cleared making a threat to kill and one ABH count but convicted of administering a noxious substance with intent, false imprisonment and ABH.

Washington, 20, of no fixed address, was convicted of false imprisonment, ABH and administering heroin but acquitted of administering Valium with intent.

A 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was convicted of false imprisonment, ABH, common assault and battery. He was cleared of pouring hot water on her foot and urinating over her.

A fifth defendant, a 16-year-old boy who cannot be named as he is under-18, was cleared of false imprisonment and assisting an offender.

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