Teenagers who snatched toddler from Primark refuse to explain WHY in court
Guilty girls yawned in court when told they could face years in jail
TWO teen sisters refuse to reveal why they snatched a child at a Primark store, a court heard yesterday.
The pair, 13 and 14, appeared there to be sentenced.
The crime was a chilling echo of the James Bulger murder in 1993.
At an earlier hearing it was revealed the girls had searched online for advice on how to rape an African child before snatching the black two-year-old girl in April.
But the sisters have repeatedly refused to reveal why they did it - and have even been told to remain silent by their family.
The girls were due to be sentenced yesterday but the judge adjourned the case after hearing that the motive was still unclear.
Mr Justice Globe fumed: "At the moment this is a wholly unexplained piece of offending. It doesn't make sense.
"Until I know what the case is actually about, how can I possibly pass an appropriate sentence?
"We are not going to fudge this issue.
"Members of their (the girls) family have given them advice to say nothing.
"They have the right to say nothing, but if they do that during the course of a trial before a jury, the jury can make an inference.
"I can also make adverse inferences in relation to the sentence that is being imposed."
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The judge said a worst case scenario was that "something terrible" was going to happen to the child.
The girls, who sat in the well of the court rather than the glass fronted, high security dock, yawned as they heard they could face years behind bars.
The judge said it was "crucial" to have all information possible before considering sentence in this "most unusual " case.
The girls had earlier tried to take another child from the store in Newcastle.
The abductors took the two-year-old to a park three miles away - where cops found them and the unharmed tot 90 minutes later.
At an earlier hearing, it emerged a tablet computer belonging to the girls contained searches for "rape" and "poor little thing getting kidnapped and raped".
The girls, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted kidnap and shoplifting baby items at North Tyneside youth court at an earlier hearing.
The little girl's father said: "As a parent you ask yourself — what was their intent?"
Toddler Jamie Bulger was murdered by two boys of ten, who abducted him in Bootle, Merseyside, in 1993.
The girls will be sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court on Monday.