'Remorseless' Northamptonshire teenager said sexual abuse of young girl 'seemed like a smart idea at the time'

The teenager, who told court psychiatrist the attacks "seemed like a smart idea at the time", was branded a risk to the public and to young girls, at Northampton Crown Court yesterday (March 2).

The court heard how he carried out the abuse as a "punishment" and would take the girl's mobile phone away from her until she complied with his advances.

In a statement by a psychiatrist read out to the court, His Honour Judge Rupert Mayo said: "Most worryingly in this assessment was that [the boy] showed no empathy for the harm he has caused.

"The appropriate sentence for this case, if he were an adult, would be 11 years."

The offences, including six incidents of rape, were carried out in 2017.

He was arrested after he was caught abusing his victim by an adult. He denied the act, and said he had been "helping her with her tablet computer".

However he later pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and was convicted at a court hearing in December 2017.

Judge Mayo described it as a "tragic case".

The teenage boy was sentenced to three years and 10 months in a young offender institute and was placed on the sex offenders' register indefinitely.

A five-year court order was also made preventing him from having contact with any girl under the age of 13, and cannot use any internet-enabled device without giving his passwords to the police.