Gainsborough child rapist detained

The youth, who cannot be named because of a court order, was found guilty of three rape charges and three further offences of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

He was convicted after a week long trial at Lincoln Crown Court earlier this year, and cleared of two further rape charges.

Judge Michael Heath placed him on the sex offenders’ register for life.

The Judge told the teenager: “These were serious criminal offences committed against these two much younger boys for your sexual gratification. I cannot avoid custody given the serious nature of these offences and their persistence.”

The court heard one of the victims was just five years old when he was raped. The other was first attacked when he was seven and was repeatedly raped.

Both victims were abused after being allowed to play with their attacker.

The teenager denied the offences and claimed the complaints against him were made up.

His suggestion that the parents of one of the victims were homophobic and encouraged the complaint because of his sexuality, was dismissed by the judge as ‘nonsense’.

Robert Underwood, prosecuting, said the teen sexually abused the older boy over two years, threatening he would end their friendship if he was not allowed to do what he wanted.

The 15-year-old went on to attack the younger boy.

The court heard how the parents of both victims had trusted the teenager to play with their children.

Catarina Sjolin, defending, said the 15-year-old, who had never been in trouble before, was expelled from school following the allegations.

“He is a young boy of positive good character. He is a very naive and vulnerable boy who will struggle in any custodial setting. Despite the various difficulties in his family life he has never previously been separated from his mother,” she said.