A BOY of 12 raped his teacher and stole her car to flee from the scene of attack, a court heard yesterday.

The North-East youngster, who cannot be named but is now aged 13, admitted rape and theft when he appeared at Teesside Crown Court.

His case was adjourned until March 11 for reports to be prepared, and he was remanded into the care of his local authority until he is sentenced.

The boy spoke briefly to confirm his name and to enter his guilty pleas during the hearing, in which details of the attack were not revealed.

The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Peter Fox, told him: "You have pleaded guilty to a very serious matter and questions arise about what is going to be done about you.

"The judge who sentences you needs to know as much as possible about you."

Judge Fox renewed an order prohibiting the boy's identity from being revealed, but said that the ban will be looked at again when the case comes back to court for sentence.

The boy, who was living in care at the time of the offences, on November 29 last year, had three carers with him in the dock.

In earlier reports of the case, it was said the teacher locked herself in a lavatory after the attack at a teaching centre in County Durham and called police from her mobile phone.

Her Renault Megane car, worth £21,000, was later found abandoned 30 miles away in Gateshead, before the youngster was arrested.

At the time of the assault, Chris Keates, general secretary of teachers' union NASUWT, said: "Attacks of the nature in this case are fortunately extremely rare.

"This brings a new dimension to the issue of pupil violence against teachers, but I don't think we should be in a position where we assume things are spiralling out of control.

"This will cause schools to review the policies they have to protect teachers working in isolation with pupils.

"Our advice on the matter is that teachers should not be left alone to work with pupils."