A 12-year-old schoolboy raped his teacher and then stole her car to drive off in, a court heard today.

The boy, now aged 13, admitted rape and theft when he appeared at Teesside Crown Court today.

No details of the incidents were outlined at the hearing.

He is understood to have carried out the attack after a one-to-one teaching session at a special needs centre in County Durham, in November last year.

The boy, from County Durham, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, then took the woman's car and drove off before abandoning it in Gateshead, on Tyneside.

Reporting restrictions were not lifted and the youth was remanded into local authority care where he will be held in secure accommodation.

The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Peter Fox QC, told the boy: ''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.''

The hearing was adjourned until March 11 for reports to be prepared.