A TEENAGER faces registering as a sex offender after being convicted of the attempted murder, kidnapping and attempted rape of a six-year-old girl.

The 15-year-old, who cannot be named, wept yesterday as a Cardiff crown court jury found him guilty of the charges by unanimous verdicts.

The incident took place in a woodland area at Malpas, Newport, on June 4 - after a Jubilee party.

The court had been told that the teenager left the girl for dead after his sickening attack, burying her in a shallow grave.

After the verdicts, Judge John Griffith Williams told the jury: "I have no doubt you found this case very troubling and very distressing.

"It's not often a jury is required to try a person as young as this." Sentence was adjourned for six weeks for a psychiatric report to be prepared by an expert on adolescents.

The defendant was detained in custody until then in a secure unit in Neath. The judge said: "I want as much information as possible. You'll be sentenced in due course."

He told the defendant that he will be liable to register as a sex offender.

The teenager had pleaded guilty to causing the girl grievous bodily harm with intent and indecent assault, but the prosecution, led by Mark Evans, QC, refused to accept the pleas.

During the four-day trial, the jury heard that on the evening of June 4 the defendant forcibly kidnapped the child and took her into dense woodland.

There, he tried to strangle her by putting both hands around her neck.

When she was on the ground, he either stamped or stood on her neck and windpipe, the court heard.

Mr Evans said the teenager tried to rape the girl, who was found by searchers, wearing only her T-shirt and trainers.

She had been dragged through undergrowth and suffered many injuries.

Her father could not recognise her when she was discovered after someone heard a "human cry" covered in mud, earth, leaves and nettles.

The girl's mother wept as she told the court: "Her face was covered in mud, her hair was matted, she was a total mess."

In the girl's eyes, the court heard, were minute haemorrhages which indicated the defendant had tried to strangle her.

Mr Evans said the defendant tried to cover her body with earth and leaves because he thought he had killed her. The child was limp and incoherent.

A consultant paediatrician, Dr Alicia Rawlinson, said she took a number of hours to examine the child and was "shocked" by her demeanour.

She said she concluded that the defendant used a significant degree of force in an attempt to strangle the child.

The child gave evidence on video, and told the jury: "He scrammed me and strangled me."

In his closing speech, Mr Evans said: "What happened on that dreadful evening hardly bears thinking about."

The child's blood was found on the teenager's trainers, and hospital swabs taken from the girl contained DNA which matched the defendant's.

The defendant was not called to give evidence during the trial.

But the court heard from Detective Constable Simon Morgan, who said when he interviewed the youth about the attack on the child, the teenager said: "What do you think I am, a maniac?"