Boy, 13, sentenced to life for raping his teacher

A boy who raped his teacher when he was just 12 was detained for life yesterday. The boy attacked the woman as she sat next to him during a one-to-one teaching session at a special needs centre in Co Durham.

A boy who raped his teacher when he was just 12 was detained for life yesterday. The boy attacked the woman as she sat next to him during a one-to-one teaching session at a special needs centre in Co Durham.

When she locked herself in the lavatory to phone the police, he drove off in her car.

Mr Justice Grigson at Teesside Crown Court told the boy, now 13: "You have admitted a very serious offence. You attacked a young woman, a very young woman who had done you no harm, indeed whose only intention was helping you overcome your particular problems. She was a very young woman who had her whole life ahead of her. You raped her. You attacked her in a sexual way, which was a very serious offence."

The judge accepted the boy's problems were not of his own making, but added: "It is plain until these problems are dealt with you are very likely to commit other offences, other offences as serious as this, so the public has to be properly protected until such time as your problems have been assisted."

John Evans, for the defence, said the boy had been the victim of sexual and physical abuse from a very young age. His parents had separated when he was two years old.