A nine-year-old Queensland girl saved her friend from a rapist's clutches.

A Queensland court has heard of the heroic actions of a young girl who dragged her friend from the grip of her rapist.

A 24-year-old man, who has not been named in order to protect the identity of the victim, was today sentenced to five years in prison over the attack, which occurred on January 10 this year, reports The Gympie Times.

The two girls, aged seven and nine, were on their way to feed a lamb on the younger child’s family property when they encountered the drunken man outside his caravan.

The man was an employee of the seven-year-old’s father, and lived and worked on the Gympie region property.

According to the paper, the encounter began with the man chasing and tickling the children. But things quickly turned sinister as he pinned the seven-year-old between his legs and began to rape her.

His attack was only halted when the elder girl, who had managed to escape, returned and pulled on her friend’s legs, freeing her from her attacker’s clutches.

The children ran back to the family home, where the young victim told her mother what had occurred.

The 24-year-old was arrested the following morning.

In sentencing him today, Judge Gary Long said the man’s drunken state was not a mitigating factor, and noted he was “not so drunk to not realise he’d done wrong”.

“There is nothing by way of any explanation for this obviously abhorrent conduct,” he said.

He will be eligible for parole on July 1, 2018.

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