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Wednesday, 10 January 2007

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Leona Lewis's cousin led rape gang

X Factor singer's family has had to deal with shame - and sadness

The family of Leona Lewis were ecstatic when she won X Factor – but the 21-year-old's triumph came after 10 years of trauma.

In 1997 Leona's cousin Adrian Henry, then 14, was sentenced to 10 year's detention after being convicted of leading a gang which raped an Austrian tourist and threw her in a canal to drown.

Henry's sister Niasha died of cancer in 2000 aged 17 and their mum Gem Louise died the following year of MS aged 38.

Last year the singer's cousin Billie died from leukaemia aged just 14.

'I've had some sad things happen in my family,' Leona, who lives in Hackney, tells the Daily Mirror. 'Seeing someone you love suffer is the worst thing.

'But being in such a close family has given me strength in many ways in times of difficulty.'

Leona's single A Moment Like This is still No 1.