Obsessed with internet porn, boy of 12 who raped sister, 9
A BOY of 12 repeatedly raped his younger sister after becoming obsessed by hardcore incest pornography on the internet.
He assaulted his nine-year- old sister in her bedroom as he enacted vile scenes he had searched for on free adult websites.
During a summer of twisted sexual ‘experimentation’ the boy, now 14, warned her she ‘wouldn’t be his sister any more’ if she did not agree to sex, Cheltenham magistrates’ court heard.
After the girl told her mother that she had been assaulted, the boy – who cannot be identified for legal reasons – claimed she had agreed to have sex.
Last week he pleaded guilty to six charges of raping a girl under 13 over summer last year.
Defence solicitor Gareth James said the youngster, of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, had been warped by ‘material that was inappropriate for somebody his age’.
Ian Fenney, prosecuting, warned ‘cases of this nature will increasingly come before the court because of the access young people now have to hardcore pornography’.
Campaigners and MPs said the ‘truly horrifying case’ had seen ‘two children stripped of their childhoods’, and is yet another chilling example of the corrosive effect of internet pornography.
Mr James told the court the boy had undergone a psychological report which ‘shows a level of maturity for his age’.
He added: ‘It is part of that maturity that gives rise to this offending. It has always been the case that teenage boys develop attraction to opposite members of sex, or of the same sex … When I was a young man the internet didn’t exist but unfortunately it does now.
‘Therefore, he does seem to have been exposed to material that was inappropriate for somebody his age and that has played a part in his offending because he has tried to re-enact what he saw with his sister. This is experimentation of a sort, albeit completely inappropriate.’
District Judge Joti Bopa-Rai handed the boy a 12-month referral order and a five-year sexual harm prevention order that prevents him contacting his sister or any under- 16s. Police will regularly search his internet history.
The Daily Mail’s Block Online Porn campaign has called for automatic blocks on internet porn to protect under-18s. It was announced in the Queen’s Speech that the Government will require pornographic sites to verify that users are over 18.
Tory MP Claire Perry, a former adviser to David Cameron on childhood, said: ‘This case is so truly horrifying and shows just what dangers are there every day on the internet.
‘The Government’s commitment to online age verification can’t come soon enough – and unless sites providing porn have robust age verification procedures in place they will be break- ing the law.’ John Carr, of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety, said: ‘This is an extreme example of what can go wrong if young people are exposed to material of this kind.’
An NSPCC spokesman said it was ‘another horrendous case highlighting the incredibly damaging impact online porn can have … two children have been stripped of their childhoods. We have long argued both industry and government need to take more responsibility … stronger enforcement powers around age verification of under-18s on porn websites is essential.’
In June, a poll of more than 1,000 children by the NSPCC and Children’s Commissioner found 94 per cent of 14-year-olds had seen X-rated films or photos.