The vicious assault of a young boy could easily have been another Bulger case, according to the detective leading the inquiry.

Det Sgt Ian Richings, the Oxford CID officer in charge of investigating the 15-year-old's rape and assault of a six-year-old, said the case had definite echoes of the 1993 murder which rocked the nation, when ten-year-olds Robert Thompson and Jon Venables abducted and killed two-year-old Jamie Bulger in Merseyside.

He said the young rapist, who has a previous conviction for assaulting a young boy, was a danger to society who could very easily have killed his young victim. The teenager had also shown no remorse.

Det Sgt Richings said: "There are a lot of similarities with the Bulger case. He couldn't stop himself doing something quite horrific.

"The victim was violently thrown about -- anything could have happened. He could have killed him.

"He's an extreme danger to the public. He has shown no remorse and that really concerns me. At no time has he shown any emotion towards the victim."

Previous psychiatric reports have essentially concluded he is "bad, not mad", but give no specific diagnosis.

Det Sgt Richings added the case was one of the most damaging he had dealt with in his 15-year police career.

On Sunday, August 5, at about 4.30pm, the six-year-old victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was playing in a playground in flats in Bartlemas Close with his young sister and cousin.

He was approached by the 15-year-old, whom he did not know.

The two chatted, before the teenager asked if the younger boy wanted to go and play golf at the nearby Southfield Golf Club.

The 15-year-old and the young boy went off towards the golf club, and it was at this point that the assault began.

The six-year-old was dragged through woodland to the left-hand side of the club, and across fields bordered by the club, and the Churchill and Warneford Hospitals.

The young boy was crying but the 15-year-old showed no pity for his victim, marching the six-year-old across a bridge and into adjacent woods before brutally raping him.

Det Sgt Ian Richings said the teenager then grabbed the victim by the throat, choked him and threw him to the ground, breaking his collarbone.

The victim, by now hysterical and traumatised, had no idea where he was, but found his way out of the fields. He was discovered by his mother, struggling to find his way home.

Images of the teenage attacker leaving the scene of the assault on a bike were picked up on CCTV cameras at the Churchill Hospital, a route he often used to get to his grandmother's house in Headington.

He lived between there, his mother's house in east Oxford -- where he had started the day -- and his father's address in Oxford.

His past also caught up with him, as an area beat officer, Pc John Brown, heard about the case and immediately connected it with a similar one two years ago.

In September 1999, the youth, then 13, was convicted of taking an eight-year-old boy from Coleman's Hill into toilets in Bury Knowle Park, where he forced him into a cubicle, pulled down his trousers and tied his legs together. This went no further and he was convicted of battery.

But the similarities in the case made Pc Brown give the boy's name to Det Sgt Richings as a strong suspect. This, coupled with the CCTV pictures, led to his arrest hours later.

In the first police interview he declined to speak but DNA linked him to the attack. He was charged with rape, kidnap and assault causing grievous bodily harm.

He initially pleaded not guilty to all three charges, but in December agreed to plead guilty to the GBH and rape charges. The kidnap charge was ordered by a judge to lay on file.

Could this have been prevented?

At the time of this attack, the 15-year-old was under a supervision order following his previous conviction, but Det Sgt Richings said he was not satisfied the order was fulfilling its intended purpose.

He said: "I had some major reservations about social services and their treatment.

"He was just roaming. He mooched between the three addresses and there was very little control over him. He had a nominal social worker at Crown House, where he made some appointments and didn't make others."

A spokesman for social services said supervision orders were dealt with by the youth offending team.

But team spokesman Mike Simm said: "We always knew where he was, despite him having three addresses.

"He failed to keep one appointment with us for which he was warned. He then missed a second appointment but was arrested for this latest offence.

"We were to deal with his criminal offending, but the responsibility for the supervision of his day-to-day life lay with social services."