A 16-YEAR-OLD girl was beaten and stripped naked in Crystal Palace Park by a gang who took pictures of her and uploaded them on Facebook, a court heard.

The humiliating nude photographs were taken by two women, Victoria Beckford, 27, from Gypsy Hill, and Siobhan Vaughan, 29, from Croydon, who added them to the teenager's profile page on the social networking website.

The image taken in Crystal Palace Park was spotted by friends and family who contacted the girl's mother.

Inner London Crown Court heard she had been taken hostage by the gang as punishment for an unpaid debt of £100.

The victim, who cannot be named because of her age, is said to have been locked in a cupboard, punched and beaten with a leather belt during the ordeal on August 14 last year, before being stripped.

Jonathan Polnay, prosecuting, said the case concerned “a stupid teenage dispute over some money” that “got way out of hand”.

Jurors heard she was offered the choice of putting her hands in boiling water or being stripped, during the ordeal.

The girl was lured to Ferndale Road, Brixton, believing that a friend was going to remove braids from her hair.

It is alleged Antonio Williams from Thornton Heath, and Dannielo Johnson, of no fixed address, both 18, were waiting for her.

Johnson tied her wrists with a dressing gown cord and then demanded her phone and PIN number.

He then allegedly locked her in a cupboard for more than an hour, during which he slid the blade of a knife through the gap between the doors.

Sian Roberts, 24, from Bromley, who the prosecution claimed was owed the debt, arrived with Beckford, 27.

Roberts dragged the 16-year-old to her car and drove her around south London, collecting Vaughan and a 17-year-old boy from West Norwood.

The gang allegedly agreed the victim should rob a member of the public and use the money to repay Roberts.

With dusk approaching, the group is then said to have headed to a poorly lit corner of Crystal Palace Park, where Beckford ordered the girl to strip, telling her: “This should teach you a lesson.”

The girl was also offered the alternative punishment of immersing her hands in boiling water.

Mr Polnay said: “She chose to put her hands in boiling water but Miss Beckford decided that this was too cruel and demanded that she removed all her clothes.”

Johnson, Williams, Roberts, Beckford, Vaughan, and the 17-year-old, all deny false imprisonment.

Roberts, Beckford, Vaughan, Williams and the 17-year-old further deny one count of making an indecent image of a child.