Questions have been raised about how youngsters are handled by the legal system after two young boys were found guilty of attempting to rape an eight-year-old girl.
The boys, aged 10 and 11, were ordered to sign the sex offenders register after being convicted on Tuesday - making them among Britain's youngest sex offenders.
Jurors at the Old Bailey cleared them of two rape offences each but found them guilty of two offences of attempted rape each by a 10-2 majority.
The boys, who sat next to their mothers during the two-week trial at the adult court, showed no reaction as they were remanded on bail for eight weeks for reports.
They were both 10 in October last year when the girl told her mother they had assaulted her in Hayes, west London.
Defence lawyers argued that the boys were being naughty or playing an age-old game such as doctors and nurses. There was also no medical evidence to show the girl had been sexually assaulted.
Mr Justice Saunders said of putting the boys on the sex offenders list: "I am not quite sure how it applies to children of this age." He added that "we should do everything we can to improve how we deal with these things by looking at the lessons that we can learn".
Leading lawyers and children's charities also raised concerns about the boys' court appearance. Writing in The Times, former director of public prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald QC said such cases risked "making fools of ourselves and worse, demons of damaged children".
"Put bluntly, we've been witnessing a spectacle that has no place in intelligent society," he said. "Very young children do not belong in adult criminal courts. They rarely belong in criminal courts at all."
Michele Elliott, director of children's charity Kidscape, described the way the case had been dealt with as "absolutely wrong". She said: "Obviously if these boys did something they need help. Their young age and the young age of their victim makes it absurd that this took place in an adversarial court situation. I think it reflects horribly on our whole system, that a case like this with children should be tried in this way."
