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A teenager locked a young girl in a dark cupboard full of spiders so he could terrify her so he could rape her, a court heard.

Luke Driver, now 21, would frighten the girl into having sex with him when he was a teenager, Gloucester Crown Court was told.

But it was only years later that the girl realised what he'd done was wrong- while reading her mum's womens' magazines.

The abuse left the victim so depressed she took an overdose and almost died, Gloucestershire Live reports.

Driver, of Gloucester, was jailed for four years after he admitted raping the girl, trying to rape her twice, sexually assaulting her on two occasions and inciting her into sexual activity.

Judge Jamie Tabor QC told Driver that if he been an adult when he committed the offences he would have received a sentence close to double figures.

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"The girl was still a child, unaware of the birds and bees, but frightened of you because on at least one occasion when she didn't do what you wanted to do you locked her in a cupboard till she agreed," said the judge.

"You were yourself at the time a troubled boy, immature, and I accept to some degree that this was sexual experimentation.

"But you knew perfectly well that what you were doing was wrong and that it was particularly wicked to invite a young girl to do it."

Prosecutor Anjali Gohil had told the judge that Driver began by kissing the girl on the lips and putting his tongue in her mouth. He then escalated his offending until he raped her.

He said: "When she refused to do what he wanted he would lock her in an understairs cupboard. She was scared of this because it was dark and full of spiders. She would be so scared that she would agree to do what he asked."

In a victim impact statement the girl said that what happened to her made her feel her life was "rubbish".

She said: "I only realised it was really, really wrong when I started reading things in my mum's womens' magazines and other peoples' experiences. I felt sick about it. It was disgusting, it was nasty.

"I started smoking weed when I was about 12. It helped to calm me down and make me feel better.

"In October 2015 I was depressed and ended up taking an overdose and almost died. I did it because I wanted to die and I hated life."

It was in December that year that she told her mother what Driver had been doing to her.

Gareth James, defending, asked the court to give Driver full credit for pleading guilty to the charges at the first opportunity.

He said Driver's sexual offending had been sporadic over a period of about 18 months at a time in his life when he did not appreciate the consequences of what he was doing.

He was also now a father of two young children and he realised his behaviour had been abhorrent, he said.

"He realises full well that he cannot undo the harm he has done."