Girl, 8, tells court that 10-year-old boys did not rape her

AN eight-year-old girl alleged to have been raped by two 10-year-old boys told the Old Bailey today that the boys had not raped her.

In cross-examination by defence counsel, the girl admitted that she had voluntarily been playing with the boys.

She said neither boy had raped her and she had lied to her mother because she had been "naughty" and was worried she would not get any sweets.

Linda Strudwick, defending one of the boys, asked her: "You didn't want your mum to think you had been naughty?"

The girl, giving evidence from behind a screen, replied: "Yeah."

The judge, Mr Justice Saunders, asked what the girl had been worried about and she replied: "No sweets if it found out I had been naughty."

The prosecution have alleged the boys took the girl to a secluded spot in Hayes, west London, to assault her last October.

The boys, now aged 11 and 10, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, deny two charges each of rape and two charges each of attempted rape of a child under 13.