A 12-year-old British boy, who until the law changed in September would have been deemed too young to commit a sex crime, was charged Wednesday with raping a girl of the same age.
The boy, the youngest Briton to be charged with rape, is accused of attacking the girl late on Tuesday in a park in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, off England’s south coast.
Before the law was altered, no child under 14 could be charged with rape.
The boy was allowed to go home with his parents on condition they do not let him go out at night. He will appear in court again in February.
Under British law, children between 10 and 14 can be convicted of crimes if it is proved that they knew what they were doing was seriously wrong. Until the 1950s children as young as 8 could be held criminally responsible.
