Girl, eight, claims she was raped by two boys aged ten

AN EIGHT-YEAR-OLD girl told her mother she had been raped by two boys aged ten, the Old Bailey heard has heard.

The girl had been playing with her younger sister, but said that she had been taken to a block of flats and a field by the boys, it was alleged.

When the younger girl arrived home without her sister, their mother went looking for her and found her with the two boys, said Rosina Cottage, prosecuting.

The boys, now aged 11 and ten, 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 in October last year.

The offences were alleged to have happened in Hayes, west London, near to where all the children lived. The boys, among the youngest charged with rape, looked tiny sitting in the middle of the court between their mothers and solicitors.

The judge, Mr Justice Saunders, and lawyers in the case dispensed with their robes and wigs. The jury was told that sitting hours had been shortened and other steps were being taken because the defendants were so young.

The judge, wearing a dark grey suit, sat where the court clerk normally sits so he was on the same level as the boys.

The trial continues.