Girl, eight, 'told mother she was raped'

An eight-year-old girl told her mother she had been raped by two boys aged 10, the Old Bailey heard today.

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

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

The boys, now aged 11 and 10, 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 - who knew each other - lived.