Nine years for supermarket rapist

The girl was assaulted when she went to the store's toilet

A teenager has been given nine years' detention for raping an 11-year-old girl in a supermarket toilet.

The 15-year-old dragged his victim into a cubicle at a Sainsbury's store in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, in March.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was sentenced at Coventry Crown Court after earlier admitting the rape and four other sexual assaults.

The boy was treated for inappropriate sexual behaviour for a year before the rape, it later emerged.

The girl was attacked after going to meet her mother at the Shires Retail Park on 2 March following an extra maths lesson.

In her interview the victim said that she thought she was going to die Det Ch Insp Adrian Pearson How victim helped find rapist

The mother, who can only be called Liz, said: "I don't think any time is long enough for what somebody does like this - to take somebody's confidence away, somebody's trust away, to alter somebody's personality."

Judge Marten Coates, who described the rape as humiliating and degrading, also sentenced the teenager to four concurrent 18-month custodial terms for more minor sex attacks committed in the town.

The boy was also placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for life.

'Dragged into toilet'

The judge told the boy the rape had been aggravated by the fact that the slightly-built victim had been "abducted" from her mother while visiting a usually safe environment.

"You took an opportunity when (the victim) became separated from her mother," he said to the defendant.

"You seized her from behind and, with her eyes and her mouth covered by your hands, you dragged her to a toilet cubicle.

"The incident appears to have been concluded abruptly because of the fortunate arrival of somebody else into the toilet block."

The boy was captured on film at the supermarket

The boy was spotted twice by his victim while they were driving in the town in the two weeks following the attack, which helped police to trace him.

Outside court Det Ch Insp Adrian Pearson, of Warwickshire Police, said of the attack: "In her interview the victim said that she thought she was going to die. She said that she thought it was like a scene from 'The Bill'.

"This must have been awful for this 11-year-old girl, shopping safely with her mum in a major supermarket at a busy time, going to a public toilet.

"All of a sudden she's confronted by someone who's older than her, displaying real force, menacing to her, threatening her not to tell anybody about what's happened and subjecting her to a brutal rape.

"And then expressing tenderness and gentleness and kissing her. Really chilling".

'Not predictable'

After the court case, it was revealed the boy was being treated by Warwickshire County Council's sexualised inappropriate behaviours service for a year before the rape took place.

Dr Andrew Durham, from the service, said the offender had been referred to it because of "minor-level incidents" which had taken place in 2004.

He added there was no sign he would have gone on to commit a serious offence.

"There was nothing in this young person's profile to suggest that he would be the person who committed this offence," he said.

The boy was considered a model pupil at school and no official complaints had been made to police about his behaviour, he continued.

"Unfortunately, behaviour like this is not predictable," he said.