We all need to pause and spare a thought for the 12-year-old girl who was raped and made pregnant by her attacker.

It is impossible to imagine what the girl and her parents are still going through, and the effect this sickening incident has had on the close-knit family.

As a community we need to let the girl and the family know our hearts are with them, as are our hopes and best wishes for the future.

One aspect of this case which will not have helped the youngster or her family is the appalling mitigation put forward on her attacker's behalf.

The court was told his guilty plea had spared the girl giving evidence in court, and that Ibrar Hussain had in anybody's view destroyed a young girl's life and -- would you credit it -- destroyed his own at the same time.

Is this the same man who was so full of remorse he denied it until the conclusive DNA tests proved it was him? There has to be a level of compassion for his family, who are no doubt equally revolted by the situation.

Defence lawyers have to go through the ritual of mitigation and are no doubt bound to act in accordance with their clients' wishes. But to try and put forward any kind of justification which attempts to put a veneer of decency over such an "appallingly nasty offence of rape", as the judge decribed it, is an insult which adds to the injury of the young girl.

It added nothing to the case, so why put it forward and cause more distress?

The family says no sentence is long enough, but gracefully accept the judge has given the maximum jail term he could.

The family would have preferred a life sentence for Ibrar Hussain -- a view the vast majority of people would undoubtedly share.