Hey, Sex Offender!
Ever "play doctor" as a kid? These days, a kid in the UK could end up a convicted sex offender for doing it. Two boys, 10 and 11, were convicted of attempted rape of an 8-year-old girl (but cleared of two counts of rape) for what very well may have been some kind of consensual kiddie sex exploration, reports the BBC -- convicted, despite the fact that their young accuser said she'd lied:

Prosecutors told the trial that the boys had approached the girl when she was playing with a friend.

The jury heard that she was taken to a block of flats, a bin shed and a field.

The girl's mother told the court she had found her daughter with the boys near a field after another child said the pair were hurting her.

But barristers for the boys, among the youngest to be prosecuted for rape, said the pair had only been playing a game like doctors and nurses.

When she was cross-examined earlier in the trial, the eight-year-old told the court she had lied to her mother about what had happened because she had been "naughty" and was worried she would not get any sweets.

Mr Justice Saunders previously refused pleas from the boys' barristers to throw out the case after the girl admitted she had not been truthful about some of her evidence.
He said that the girl had been consistent in what she told adults, including police and doctors, soon after the incident and said she had looked exhausted at the end of her evidence.

After the trial, Alison Saunders, chief Crown prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service London, said the allegations made by the young girl were "very serious" and the decision to prosecute "was not taken lightly".

She said: "She had given a clear and compelling account to the police and her account was consistent with the medical evidence and with the accounts given by other witnesses to the police."

Det Ch Insp Peter Holdcroft said: "This was a very complex investigation involving a very young girl but throughout the investigation, her accounts remained consistent.

More on the girl's story, which seems to involve some mutual "you show me yours/I'll show you mine," here and here.

We can't know what happened here, but it's my feeling that you don't convict on maybe, probably, well, we're not really sure.