Two teenage asylum seekers have denied they took part in a gang rape of a girl at a hostel in Medway.

Ahmed Naeem, 18, and a 17-year-old, who cannot be identified because of his age, pleaded not guilty to two charges of raping the girl, aged 18, with “others unknown”.

Claiming to be from Syria, they appeared in the dock at Maidstone Crown Court with an Arabic interpreter.

The alleged attack was at a hostel in Gillingham in November last year. A trial date has been set for April 11 and the pair are in custody.

Naeem had claimed he was 17, which meant he could not be identified, but Judge Jeremy Carey said after he arrived at Dover Port in July 2014, he gave his date of birth through an interpreter as June 16, 1997.

He later claimed the interpreter had made a mistake and his true date of birth was June 16, 1998.

But after considering a report following an assessment of Naeem, Judge Carey ruled that his true age was 18.