Rapists as young as 10 could be locked up in specialist units

The move follows a rise in the number of ‘dark and very troubling’ rapes and sex attacks carried out by children addicted to online porn.

Giving evidence to the justice select committee yesterday, Youth Justice Minister Phillip Lee said the problem was worrying enough for his ministry to consider establishing a special wing in the youth custody estate. Children held in the unit would be looked after by specialist staff and given education and therapy to tackle their behaviour, a source said.

Eight prisons have been set up for adult sex offenders but this would be the first time specialist facilities have been opened for children. Dr Lee told MPs: ‘I think it’s at the early stages but I’ve asked the department to start thinking ahead in terms of do we need a special unit for children like this.

‘It’s very small numbers but the crimes are quite dark and very troubling.’

Last year an 11-year-old boy from Blackpool became one of Britain’s youngest rapists after he admitted attacking a nine-yearold boy 15 times. He was sentenced to four years’ detention.

A court heard his mind was likely to have been warped by online pornography after he was found to have made computer searches for ‘gay rape’, and ‘gay rape porn’.

Another 11-year-old boy was convicted of rape last year after carrying out sex attacks on his nine-year- old sister on two occasions at their home in Plymouth. A court heard the boy was later found with ‘images’ on his mobile phone.

Youngsters over the age of ten convicted or accused of crimes are held in secure children’s homes, training centres or young offender institutions.

The overall number of ten to 17-year-olds in custody in Eng-

‘Crimes are dark and troubling’

land and Wales has reduced substantially in the last decade. It stood at 893 in August, compared with nearly 3,000 in the same month of 2007, but the number convicted of rapes or sex assaults rose from 393 in 2014 to 442 in 2016.

Dr Lee said youth custody had to deal with a ‘very challenging cohort of individuals’.

In a speech last year, Dr Lee warned that extreme online pornography was fuelling an alarming rise in the number of rapists who are children.

The former GP told a youth justice conference: ‘We are seeing an internet age driving greater access to more worrying imagery online.

‘In the extreme, the sexualisation of youth is manifesting itself in younger conviction ages for rape.’