Teenage boys who raped a 10-year-old girl while playing Xbox are released for being too young
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Version 0 of 1. Two teenage boys who raped a girl while they played Xbox have been released after a judge decided that they were too young to face a custodial sentence. The boys, who were 12 and 13 when they carried out the attack on the girl aged 10, were told at Newport Crown Court in South Wales that they would have faced a “very long custodial sentence” had they been older . Instead they were ordered to wear electronic tags, put on the sex offender’s register and given youth rehabilitation orders with intense supervision. The court heard that the two boys and the girl were friends and had been playing football prior to the attack. However, when the weather outside got too cold they all decided to go inside and play computer games on the Xbox. During this time the older of the two boys encouraged his friend to have sex with young girl and he later joined in. The girl did not tell anyone about the attack until her mother found out four months later. Judge Ian Murphy who oversaw the case said that the girl’s parents had described their daughter as “an empty shell and say her innocence was taken away from her.’ At the trial last month, both boys, who are now 14, denied rape but were later found guilty. Judge Murphy told them: ‘This is a very serious offence. Had you been adults you would have been looking at a lengthy custodial sentence. You were very young at the time and used to play football with the little girl. 'You betrayed your friendship and you engaged in impulsive sexual exploration. No force was used but she was only a little girl of 10.’ The boys have been told that they must now where an electronic tag which will prohibit them from leaving their house after 7pm. They will also be placed on the sex offenders register for two and a half years and will have to regularly attend a compulsory sexual offences programme. |