Three years for boy strip attack

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/scotland/7837617.stm

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A teenager who stripped and blindfolded an eight-year-old boy after luring him into woodland in the Scottish Borders has been detained for three years.

Darren McIntosh, 17, of Galashiels, had previously been found guilty by a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh.

The trial heard how the boy lay naked as his stepfather searched the area for him on 23 August 2007.

Judge Roger Craik QC told McIntosh he had been convicted of "serious and worrying offences".

Background reports showed McIntosh had a history of anti-social and disruptive offending and posed a risk of getting into trouble again, the judge added.

The judge also made an order that McIntosh should be kept under strict supervision for an extra year after his release from custody, and added his name to the sex offenders' register.

Sex acts

During the trial last year, the court heard evidence via CCTV from the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

He described how he had been taken to the woods in the Langlee area of Galashiels by an older boy, where he was stripped and blindfolded with his own clothes.

He then told the court his attacker had carried out sex acts on him.

The child added that as he lay naked and blindfolded he had heard his stepfather shouting his name as he searched the area.

McIntosh had denied charges of abduction "with intent to commit a sexual offence" and indecent behaviour.

However, he was unanimously found guilty by the jury.