A Fife teenager who raped a 12-year-old schoolgirl has been locked up for 32 months.
The youth, who was aged 16 at the time, had contact with his victim via social media prior to the offence.
He then asked the girl if she would like to meet to have “some fun” before raping her at his home in Fife on March 10 last year.
The victim revealed details to her mother as soon as she returned home.
A judge at the High Court in Edinburgh rejected a plea to spare the youth, now aged 17, a custodial sentence.
Defence solicitor advocate Iain Paterson asked Lord Beckett to consider taking the “very unusual” step of imposing a community payback order with a significant period of supervision on the teenager, who cannot be identified because of his age.
Mr Paterson said that because of his age the offender had to be treated as a child.
He told the court: “Clearly the issue and focus should be on rehabilitation where possible.”
The defence lawyer said: “He wants to make it clear he does accept there has been an impact and he is sorry for that.”
Lord Beckett told the youth he took into account that there had been a number of significant difficulties for him in his early years.
He said that the teenager’s age bore on his degree of responsibility and had implications for the prospects of him being rehabilitated and reintegrated into society.
But the judge said the brutality of the attack counted against him.
“You went so far as to choke her. That is a serious feature of this case.”
He told the youth that were it not for his age the sentence imposed on him would be “very significantly longer”.
The judge sentenced him to be locked up for two years and eight months. He also ordered that he be monitored and supervised for a further three-year period
Lord Beckett told the teenager he would be on the sex offenders register indefinitely.
The youth, who followed proceedings via a video link, had earlier admitted raping the girl.
