A Saudi court has ratified the beheading and crucifixion of a young man who raped five children, among them a 3-year-old boy left to die in the desert, a Jeddah newspaper reports.

An appeal court in Riyadh approved the death sentence handed down in June by a lower court in Hail, where the convicted 22-year-old man carried out his crimes, the Okaz newspaper said.

The man was arrested several weeks ago, the paper said, as he tried to seize another youth after offering him a ride home from school.

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