US boy and girl face rape and attempted murder charges in attack on 5-year-old
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The Cleveland Division of Police said on Oct 15 that it was investigating “a case involving multiple children under the age of 10".
PHOTO: MADDIE MCGARVET/NYTIMES
Rylee Kirk
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OHIO – A nine-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl in Ohio are facing charges of rape and attempted murder after an attack on a five-year-old girl in a Cleveland field, the authorities said on Oct 15.
The girl and boy were charged with attempted murder, four counts of rape, two counts of felonious assault, strangulation and kidnapping in the attack in September, according to the Cuyahoga County prosecutor’s office.
In a post on Facebook in October, the victim’s mother gave an agonising account of the horrific injuries to her daughter.
She said that on Sept 13, her daughter was found “unresponsive, bloody with her hair pulled from her scalp” and “covered in bruises”, among other injuries sustained in the attack.
“My daughter did not look like herself,” she added in the Facebook post.
The New York Times is not naming the mother or her daughter because the newspaper typically does not identify victims of sex crimes.
The five-year-old girl had been left with a family member while her mother underwent a medical procedure when the girl left the home and could not be found, the mother said. When the mother arrived at the home, her daughter was being treated by emergency responders, she said.
It is unclear what the girl’s current condition is.
On Oct 7, the Cleveland Division of Police posted a statement on its Facebook page saying that the department was aware of a social media post about a current case. It added that police were “actively investigating” and unable to share information.
The department said in a statement on Oct 15 that it began investigating “a case involving multiple children under the age of 10, both as victims and as suspects of the investigation” on Sept 13.
The department declined to comment further, citing the possibility of jeopardising the case as well as violating the constitutional rights and privacy of the people involved.
The prosecutor’s office in Cuyahoga County announced the charges on Oct 15, saying it was still receiving information and obtaining evidence.
Spokesperson for the office Lexi Bauer said that the charges were filed in juvenile court on Oct 15 and that the two children who have been accused would be arraigned at a later date.
In Ohio, a juvenile suspect must be 14 or older for the case to be eligible to be transferred to adult court, the spokesperson said. NYTIMES
