If they're charged with intent to commit a sexual offence, that means they didn't actually do anything, right?
This whole case is very bizarre, I can't see how they had time to do anything luckily. From what I've read the sequence of events seems to be
- lured the girl away from her parent/carer or took advantage of a child already separated in a large shop
- took her to a nearby underground station and waited for a train (I'm assuming this from the DM article that says police activity near a metro station at the other end)
- waited for train/maybe some time to decide which way to go/maybe just got on the first one that came along
- got off train and walked to the park/shops area
- went into the Sainsburys where they were spotted (did they shoplift there?)
- went to the park where they were found
That could easily take and hour depending on how long they waited for a train and how long the journey takes and is all very public. I wonder if they were planning to meet someone else in the park to hand over the girl.
It doesn't bear thinking about.
One thing I did find odd is the reporting that Primark are co-operating with the police - why wouldn't they, it's hardly their fault that it happened in their store