A teenage boy who dragged a five-year-old child off the street and raped him in a disused coal shed has been sentenced to an extended period of seven years’ detention.
The boy, then 14, seized his terrified victim by the hair and threatened to kill him.
He will serve a four-year determinate sentence in custody and three years on licence.
He abducted and raped the little boy, who was walking the short distance to his home after buying a chocolate bar at a nearby shop on the afternoon of September 5, Bradford Crown Court was told yesterday.
As he was sentenced, the teenager, now 15, was told by Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC that if he had been an adult he would have been jailed for at least nine years. He was held in custody after his arrest and sat in the dock in a blue shirt and tie to hear prosecutor Karma Melly relate the facts against him.
He pleaded guilty to oral rape in October. The case was then adjourned for reports from the probation service and a forensic psychologist, who concluded the teenager had a mental age of 11.
Miss Melly said the defendant approached the boy in the street and said he wanted to show him something. He grabbed him and threatened to kill him if he did not go with him.
He sexually abused the child in a disused coal shed only yards from his home in Bradford.
The little boy ran home crying and told his family what had happened to him. His mother called the police.
The teenager was identified as his attacker by DNA evidence.
Abbas Lakha QC, mitigating for the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said he was remorseful and apologised to the boy and his family.
“He knows what he did was wrong and he has expressed the desire never to be in this position again,” Mr Lakha said.
Judge Durham Hall said the teenager had been accused of bullying at school and of “inappropriate conduct” with a female pupil.
His probation officer said he posed a high risk of reoffending.
The little boy had been left traumatised and the psychological damage he had suffered was incalculable, the judge noted.
The teenager was ordered to sign on the Sex Offenders’ Register and a Sexual Offences Prevention Order was made,
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