A 14-year-old boy who raped and sexually abused a terrified seven-year-old girl after locking her in an attic has been sentenced to five years’ detention.

The teenager, who was 13 at the time, threatened to punch the child and told her he had a knife, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

The boy, who cannot be named, admitted raping the girl and sexually assaulting her at his home in Bradford on May 1 last year.

She was looking for her mother after she had attended at the mosque after school and a neighbour was late collecting her, prosecutor Kitty Taylor said.

Her distressed mother and local residents were searching for her when she came out from an alleyway near the boy’s home. She was very distressed, saying: “Mum, they wouldn’t let me out.”

The court heard the child was able to give police a graphic and compelling account of what had been done to her.

The boy made her strip and abused her on a bed after locking both the house and attic doors.

Her 30-minute ordeal included being sexually molested and orally raped.

The boy offered her a drink of something from a silver bottle but she did not take it.

He was arrested later that day eating a takeaway meal with his family.

The little girl said the attack made her “feel sick, horrible, ugly and disgusted”.

In a statement to the court, the girl’s mother said the family had left the area after the attack. It was a “horrendous” offence that left them terrified of seeing the boy afterwards.

The woman said she had cried a lot after it happened and was now more protective of her children and less trusting of other people.

Jayne Becket, the boy’s barrister, said: “The court must bear in mind how young this defendant was when he did this dreadful thing.”

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC told the boy, who sat in the dock next to his father: “You took advantage immediately of an opportunity to molest, abuse and terrorise this little girl.

“You are seriously out of control and you are, or have the potential to be, a very wicked young man.”

The judge made a Sexual Offences Prevention Order without limit of time and the boy’s family must sign the sex offenders’ register on his behalf.