A BOY aged 12 who attacked and raped a teacher was detained for life yesterday because he is such a danger to the public.

The boy, now 13, who had been the victim of sexual and physical abuse since he was a toddler, attacked his slightly built victim, a married woman in her thirties, after making sure he was alone with her at a special needs centre in Co Durham. He then fled in her car.

Mr Justice Grigson explained to the boy, a stocky child who appeared in court wearing a hooded jacket and flanked by security officers, that he felt compelled to order an indeterminate sentence.

The judge acknowledged that the boy’s problems were not of his own making but said that, nevertheless, he was very likely to commit further and equally serious offences. He must be detained for a minimum of 21 months but should be prepared for much longer.

The victim, sitting with her husband, watched intently from the public gallery at Teesside Crown Court as Mr Justice Grigson told the boy: “The public has to be protected from you until such time as these problems have been addressed.

“I must impose an indeterminate sentence . . . which enables those who have cared for you to judge when you are ready to face your future.”

It emerged that the crop-haired boy, who has severe learning difficulties and cannot be identified for legal reasons, was one of three brothers from a notorious problem family in Co Durham. His mother, an alcoholic addicted to heroin, was jailed for three years in May 2002 for indecently assaulting the boy, then aged 9. Her partner was acquitted of raping him.

Gateshead social services has announced that it has appointed an independent barrister specialising in child protection to review the case. Shaun Dodds, for the prosecution, said that the attack happened at a community centre where the boy was being taught on his own.

The boy ignored his teacher’s pleas and forced her to the floor. Then he took money and keys from her purse and drove off in her £21,000 car. The boy denied rape but had scratches on his thighs and hands and blood on his underwear that matched that of the teacher.

Later, outside court, a picture emerged of a psychologically damaged child who had an appalling start in his life. A villager recalled how the boy’s mother, a violent alcoholic, would beat her partner and scream at the children. “She had no idea how to be a parent,” he said. The mother would encourage men to get her drunk and take them home to “take turns on her in front of the boys”, he claimed. It is also alleged she would inject or smoke heroin in front of the children.

Her son was a quiet brooding boy who liked to draw, but would then tear the spines off books for pleasure.

“He had this way of just standing and watching silently what was going on,” the observer said. “His relationship with his mother was very unhealthy.”

In December 2001 his mother and her partner answered to police bail. The children were in the care of foster parents. The court heard how the mother molested the child by riding up and down on his leg and then having sex with the nine-year-old. Her partner, now a recovering heroin addict, was acquitted of the charges. In Teesside Crown Court John Evans, for the defence, said that it was a tragic but not unique case.

The boy’s parents separated in 1993 when he was aged two and by the age of three concerns were being expressed about his sexual behaviour. Aged four, he was being encouraged to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes.

Mr Evans said: “Some might say that the signs were already there that he was being significantly let down, he was already massively damaged. He would simulate oral sex on his teddy bear at the age of less than four.” The boy and his brothers had been sexually abused from a very early age.

He added: “He had a truly appalling start to life and it would seem unfortunate that in the mid-Nineties, when all these problems were there for people to see, the treatment now being proposed was not given consideration.”

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