A twice-failed Iraqi asylum seeker has been jailed for his part in the "terrifying and degrading" gang rape of a Blackpool schoolgirl.

Awat Ahmed, 27, of Cookson Street, will serve at least five years in prison after being found guilty of raping the 15-year-old by Lancaster Crown Court last week.

Judge Andrew Blake, ordered that Ahmed be deported after serving his sentence.

The court heard how Ahmed, is believed to be one of four men who took it in turns to systematically rape the girl after meeting her at the Better Burger takeaway, on the Promenade, and tricking her into accompanying them, by car, to a house on Caroline Street in the town on May 17 last year.

Her brutal ordeal lasted more than two hours before Ahmed and his alleged accomplices, who have never been caught, forced her back into their car and then dumped her on the Golden Mile. Ahmed claimed in court that the girl had consented to sex.