Teen raped boy, 13

3:22pm Thursday 15th May 2008

A GWENT teenager was sentenced to six years' detention for raping a 13-year-old boy.

The defendant, aged 15, who cannot be identified, pleaded guilty to rape.

Judge Nicholas Cooke told Cardiff crown court: "I have to have regard for the need to protect vulnerable children from you."

The defendant's counsel, Tom Crowther, said he had experienced a climate of violence in his home. The one beacon of hope in his life is that he is close to his mother.

Mr Crowther said: "He is a paradigm of someone who suffered, through no fault of his own every sort of difficulty which is likely to lead to this sort of behaviour.

"He didn't have the resources of reasoning to put a barrier between his impulses and his actions. There is an element of remorse."

The judge said that no stone had been left unturned by the authorities in trying to find an alternative to a lengthy custodial sentence.

He said an educational psychologist had concluded that the youth had had a "chaotic childhood."

A forensic psychiatrist was of the opinion, said the judge, that he was a risk to vulnerable young people and required a secure environment and a Youth Offending Team said he could not be returned home because of the problems of supervision.

On release, the youth has been ordered to register as a sex offender for life.