A student who admitted to raping a 12-year-old has been allowed to walk free after a judge said it was "reasonable" to assume she was over 16.

Daniel Cieslak, 21, had sex with the child after meeting her in a taxi queue but did not realise she was under 16 and burst into tears when he was arrested and police revealed her real age.

He had pleaded guilty to rape at an earlier hearing as she was under the age of 13 and therefore legally incapable of consenting.

After hearing the facts of the case, Lady Scott told the High Court in Glasgow that "justice is best served" by taking the "wholly exceptional decision" to give Cieslak an absolute discharge - the most lenient sentence possible.

She said: "I do not consider there is any need for, or public interest in, punishment. To do so would in my view be disproportionate given the nature of the criminal culpability here."