A 13-year-old who raped a younger boy out of curiosity after watching pornography on the Internet has been given a two-year youth rehabilitation order.

The teenager, who is from east Suffolk but can not be identified due to his age, was sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court after previously admitting rape and attempted rape.

The court heard a police inquiry began in September last year. However, a previous sexual offence committed by the boy in 2015, when he was aged 12, had ended in a community resolution.

The boy told the youngster he assaulted last year not to tell anyone about what had happened.

When interviewed by police he said he had been curious because he had watched pornography.

Lynne Shirley, mitigating, said the pornography the boy had viewed was not illegal.

She said: 'It wasn't child pornography. It was lawful pornography. It was adult pornography. He had access to the pornography. It was curiosity essentially.'

Judge Martyn Levett said he had to weigh up very carefully whether the boy should be placed in detention for a number of years or if there was a chance he could still be rehabilitated without doing so.

Reports prepared by experts were taken into consideration.

Judge Levett said: 'He's so young he doesn't understand what the sexual precepts are to gratification. If that's right he's not going to learn anything in a custodial setting – not a thing.

'I have to balance in my mind when I look at the risk, do I feel I have the power to manage that risk?'

The boy's mother told the court he was immature mentally and emotionally.

Referring to the victim, Judge Levett told the teenager: 'No one will ever know the effect it has on him in the long-term.'

The judge also told the boy: 'You had recently accessed pornography either on a telephone or a laptop.

'You had been searching websites.'

The next day the boy was said to have become aroused and the effect of his curiosity was to conduct himself in the sexual manner he did.

In addition to the youth rehabilitation order the teenager must sign the sex offenders' register for a minimum of two-and-a-half years.