Tough justice: The man lost his appeal at a court in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

A man in Saudi Arabia is to be beheaded and crucified after he raped five children and left one of them, a three-year-old boy, to die in the desert.

An appeal court in the capital Riyadh approved the death sentence handed down in June by judges in the northwestern oasis city of Hail where the convicted 22-year-old man carried out his crimes.

The rapist - who was not named - was arrested several weeks ago as he tried to seize another boy after offering him a ride home from school.

The seven-year-old - who escaped unharmed - helped identify the culprit.

The man’s victims were aged between three and seven. He was said to have lured them into his car as they left school at midday and then drove them to remote desert locations to rape them.

An investigation was launched after a 25-year-old father reported that his three-year-old son was missing and that he suspected the kidnapper to be a male driver of a white four-wheel drive vehicle.

The infant was later found under a scorching sun in the desert where he had died of thirst.

A panel of three judges in Hail sentenced the rapist to death for “abhorrent”  crimes which they said had terrorised the community.

Crucifixion in the conservative desert Kingdom means tying the convict’s body to wooden beams to be displayed to the public after he is decapitated by a professional swordsman.

Saudi Arabia has executed 56 people this year under laws that allow the death penalty for rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking.

In extreme cases, the convict is executed and his body crucified in public.