A TEENAGE rapist attacked a 12-year-old girl after befriending her on Snapchat.

William Cooper arranged to meet the schoolgirl at Atherton rail station on December 11, 2019, before the pair walked to a field near a primary school.

After sitting and talking Cooper, then aged 17, gave her a love bite on the neck.

"She asked him to stop," Adam Lodge, prosecuting, told Bolton Crown Court.

"At that point he took her phone away, placed it out of reach and then pinned her to the ground and forced himself on top of her."

After making a hole in the girl's leggings Cooper, now aged 19, raped her for several minutes before she managed to kick him, struggle free and run off.

"As she ran off he was heard to shout, 'Come back. Don't tell anyone, I'll get people to do stuff to you'," said Mr Lodge.

Cooper was arrested after the girl confided in a member of staff at her school and tests found his DNA in her underwear.

Cooper, of Briscoe Lane, Newton Heath, pleaded guilty to raping a child but claimed that he thought she was nearer aged 15 than 12.

James Heyworth, defending, said Cooper had a troubled childhood and, at the time of the rape, was living in supported accommodation for young homeless people.

"He was very socially isolated," said Mr Heyworth.

Recorder Sarah Johnston sentenced Cooper to four years in a young offenders' institution.

"She was in no position to consent to your behaviour towards her," she told him.

"Her 12-year-old mind not want to have sex with you and neither did her 12-year-old body.

"You carried on regardless to satisfy yourself and nothing else. You had no regard for her feelings whatsoever."