A TEENAGE boy raped a girl aged six and a boy aged eight using a "murder in the dark" game over a nine-month campaign of abuse.

The 13-year-old predator subjected his victims to oral rape and sexual abuse on at least 14 occasions under the sick pretence of playing the children's game.

Exeter Youth Court heard how the teenager would play the "seeker" in the murder in the dark game and would team up with either the boy or the girl to abuse them when he was alone with one of them.

Prosecutor Fiona Elder said the extent of the abuse only emerged when the boy had sex education lessons at school and told his parents that this is what the defendant had been doing to the girl.

She said the girl later said she was abused on her birthday and she started to wear dungarees so that the culprit would "not go to her".

Mirror Online reports how the boy then confided in his father that the defendant had also raped him orally and engaged in other sex acts.

He said it had happened about "50 times".

District Judge Diana Baker said rejected that this was "sexual experimentation", or that it was a "one off" type of offending.

She said there was an "element of manipulation", and that the youth told his victims not to tell their families what he was doing.

It took the two children several years before they told of the abuse that they were subjected to between September 2013 and May 2014.

Judge Baker said: "He sought out two innocent children and raped them, sexually assaulted the boy and engaged in sexual behaviour, causing them untold damage and taken away their childhood innocence."

Speaking to the defendant, she added: "There is no doubt your offending has caused the most serious damage and potentially life long impact on the two children."

The victims' parents said the effect on them had been a "living nightmare" and was like "opening Pandora's box and an emotional rollercoaster".

The defendant, who is now 18, had displayed anger and was unhappy and depressed, the court heard.

He admitted raping a boy under 13, raping a girl under 13, two counts of assaulting a boy and a girl under 13 by touching and two charges of inciting the boy to engage in sexual activity.

The defendant said: "I am sorry for the victims and everyone who has been affected."