Syrian Refugee Sympathetically Profiled by BBC Convicted for Child Rape

A general view of BBC Broadcasting House, in central London on July 10, 2023. Lucy North/PA Wire

A Syrian refugee who was sympathetically profiled by the BBC in 2016 has been convicted of the rape of a 13-year-old girl in Newcastle.

An eight-year-old episode of “Newsnight,” the BBC’s flagship news and current affairs TV programme, has resurfaced as it featured a sympathetic piece on Omar Badreddin, who was found guilty this week of the rape of a 13-year-old girl.

A former BBC journalist criticised the BBC’s handling of the case, highlighting the corporation’s apparent bias towards certain minority groups, even in the face of serious allegations.

In 2016’s “To Hell and Back,” Badreddin’s family, who said they had fled the Syrian civil war, were filmed by a BBC “Newsnight” team. During the making of the piece, Badreddin was accused, and subsequently cleared, of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old in Leazes Park, Newcastle.

BBC analysis at the time said that “in Syrian culture, this type of accusation is so damaging to their reputation, that even though Omar Badreddin has been cleared, they fear the stigma of it will stick.”

BBC also implied that that his underage accuser was motivated by xenophobia. In the piece Badreddin said that, “I felt she didn’t want foreigners in this country and that is why she made up the whole story.”

The BBC reporter said, “The Syrian men in many ways appeared less sexually experienced than the girls they were supposed to have attacked.”

Undated police photo of Omar Badreddin. Northumbria Police

Child Sexual Exploitation

On Monday, Northumbria Police said that Badreddin had been jailed for 18 years for child sexual exploitation offences. His brother Mohamad Badreddin was also jailed for 13 years.

A range of enquiries were carried out by detectives after two victims, aged between 12 and 14, came forward to report what had happened to them. The men denied a number of offences including rape and sexual assault, but on Oct. 9, 2023, a jury found them guilty. Two other men, Huzaefa Aleboud and Hamoud Al-Soaimi, were also jailed for similar offences.

Speaking after the sentencing, the senior investigating officer, Detective Inspector Simon Drenon of Northumbria Police, said, “These men preyed on two young, vulnerable girls and their actions are completely deplorable.”

Claire Wright, a senior crown prosecutor with the north east’s Rape and Serious Sexual Offences team, said: “Those sentenced were responsible for a devastating campaign of sexual abuse against two vulnerable young girls.

“Through their actions they have caused significant trauma to their victims, who continue to struggle with the effects of the numerous offences perpetrated against them.

“Despite this, both girls have shown tremendous courage in providing evidence against their assailants, which has been instrumental in helping us build such a robust case against them.”

‘BBC’s Underlying Mindset’

A top journalist who spent 25 years at the BBC told The Epoch Times that the case highlights the “BBC’s underlying mindset when it comes to immigration in general.”

Robin Aitken said that the story shows the way that the BBC “employed a sympathy towards certain minority groups, even when there was a suggestion that Badreddin had committed a sexual assault on a 14-year-old girl.”

He said that the BBC always “gives the benefit of the doubt to a favoured victim group like immigrants whilst withholding sympathy one would one give naturally to a young girl who has been sexually assaulted.”

In January, Mr. Aitken told NTD’s “British Thought Leaders” programme that unless there is real reform of the BBC within the next couple of years, “it’s time to say ’sayonara.'”

“The dishonesty in the organisation is this: that it proclaims itself to be impartial and honest. But it’s not impartial. And that’s the worst of both worlds,” he said.

“For it to be proclaiming itself as impartial whilst doing something which is clearly not impartial is defrauding people,” he said, adding that it’s one of the reasons he has “sadly” come to believe the licence fee should be scrapped.

The BBC did not respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.

However, it released a statement accompanying its recent reporting on the Badreddin brothers case and expressed sympathy for the victims, emphasising that it reported on the facts available at the time.

“In 2015 and 2016, Newsnight followed the story of the Badreddin family, who were Syrian refugees who had settled in the UK,” it said.

“During 2016, their son Omar was tried for sexual assault and found not guilty. Two years afterwards, in 2018 and 2019, Omar Badreddin and his brother Mohamed committed multiple counts of rape. They were found guilty and were jailed on 1 March 2024. The BBC reported this. In any situation, the BBC can only report on the facts as they stand at the time, which is what we did in 2016. The Badreddins’ subsequent crimes are appalling, and we express our sincere sympathies to their victim.”