A teenager who raped two schoolchildren has been locked up for five-and-a-half years.
William Stewart admitted sexually assaulting the 10-year-old girl and six-year-old boy in Aberdeen between June 2009 and June 2011, when he was aged between 12 and 13.
The 17-year-old appeared at the High Court in Glasgow today for sentencing.
Judge Lord Armstrong told him: “You robbed these children of their innocence and forced on them experiences which no child should have to endure.
“Your family has effectively disowned you.
“At the time of these offences you were young, but these crimes of which you stand convicted are abhorrent and grave. It is important that young people should be protected.”
Defence counsel Frances McMenamin QC tried to convince the court to deal with Stewart without a custodial sentence, given his young age when the offences were committed.
She suggested he should instead be put on programmes to address his sexually abusive offending.
She said: “He was aged between 12 and 13 when these offences were committed.
“He has done as well as anybody to recognise the effect of these offences must have had on the complainers.
“These offences have been hanging over him for a long time and his family have washed their hands of him.
“He knows that he did was very, very wrong.”
However, Lord Armstrong sentenced Stewart to five years and six months in detention, and placed him on the sex offenders’ register.
Stewart showed no emotion as he was led away to begin his sentence.