Judge gives warning to parents after young boy watched porn and raped child

'Parents should monitor their children’s activities rather than being left to their own devices in their bedrooms'

Judge said porn influenced perpetrator's behaviour (Getty/iStockphoto)

A judge has reportedly warned parents to monitor what their children are watching in their bedrooms after a teenage boy watched porn and then raped a minor.

William Nicholson, now 19, started watching porn when he was 12, making searches on his X-Box.

Two years later, the County Durham teenager raped a schoolgirl. He was also accused of showing porn to his victim.

The girl confided in a family friend in 2015, and the police were called.

Nicholson was found guilty of two counts of rape, attempted rape, two indecent assaults and causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

Judge Peter Armstrong reportedly said watching porn had influenced Nicholson’s behaviour.

“It is a warning to parents to monitor their children’s activities rather than being left to their own devices in their bedrooms,” he said, as reported by The Sun.

“It’s behaviour where it is experimenting or curious and perhaps acting out what he had seen using [the girl] as an object to do that.”

The girl said she had been confused and knew what was happening to her was “wrong”, but she said she could not find the way to express it.

She added she still suffered from trauma but was "happy" to be believed in the court room.

Nicholson will spend six years in a young offenders’ institution, and will be on the sex offenders’ register for life.

He will never be allowed to work with children.