A teenage ‘rapist’ who is accused of assaulting three girls when they were as young as 12 years old was sentenced to just 45 days in a juvenile home.
Families of the victims are outraged over the lenient sentence for the 16-year-old who repeatedly raped their daughters. The victims are also terrified they will have to see him again if he is allowed to return to their school.
‘I feel betrayed,’ one of the victims told the Detroit Free Press last week, after the teen was sentenced by a juvenile court referee to 45 days in a youth facility as part of a plea agreement where he admitted one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
If he’d have been charged as an adult, he could have faced life in prison.
The mothers of three girls who were sexually assaulted, from left, Debra, 41, Ashley, 33 and Jackie, 53, hold up a #StandWithTheseGirls poster
The victim, who has not been named, said the attack made her ‘hate myself’ and the sentence made her feel like the suspect ‘has more rights than we do.’
A Detroit court heard how the boy, who has not been named, raped a 12-year-old in a ditch behind a Brighton movie theater, he raped another 12-year-old twice before she fled and ran barefoot through the snow to escape a third assault, and he raped a 13-year-old twice – once in a neighbor’s basement, and the second time when he came to apologize for the first assault.
The 13-year-old told the Free Press that the boy had been messaging her on Snapchat all day on March 2, complaining that he was stressed, when she agreed to let him come over to her neighbor’s house where she was cat sitting.
At some point, she had gone down to the basement to do a load of laundry, and the boy, then 15, followed her.
She said he had then attacked her, sticking his tongue down her throat and ripping off her underwear.
The girl said that after he raped her, he’d asked: ‘Can I have a hug at least?’
The victims are also terrified they will have to see him again if he is allowed to return to their school
Later that night, after she’s returned home, she says he texted her urging her to keep quiet and threatening to kill her if she didn’t.
‘This is just between us, right?’ she said he messaged her and even tried to blame her for the attack.
The girl said she confided in a friend who let the secret slip and within days, news of the incident was all over school and Snapchat. She said when the news leaked, she was bullied and called a ‘whore’ and a liar by classmates.
Three weeks later, the boy had pulled her side claiming he needed to apologize and wanted to talk.
He followed her home, to her bedroom, where she confronted him, demanding to know why he’d attacked her.
She says he apologized, but then, to her horror, he climbed on top of her and raped her again.
The following day, she entered the girls bathroom at Scranton Middle School where she was confronted by two younger girls. They’d heard what had happened and had the same story.
All three had been pursued by the teen, who had raped them, gone over to apologize, and raped them again, they say. Their tearful conversation was overheard, and they were interrupted by the principal, a secretary and a counselor who wanted to know what happened.
The following day, their parents were called to the school by a counselor.
Families of the victims are outraged at the lenient sentence the boy received
‘I was not prepared to hear what I heard,’ said Ashley, the mother of the 13-year-old girl. ‘My entire world just crashed at that moment.’
The families of the victims went to the police, and the boy was brought in for questioning.
He denied ever having been to the 13-year-old’s house and said he’d only visited her neighbor’s once, on a different day. When police confronted him with surveillance images of him walking towards their home, and a towel which had his DNA on it.
The boy then changed his story, admitting they’d engaged in sexual activity on the day in question, but claimed it was consensual.
A few months later, he pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal sexual conduct – admitting he had sex with the 13-year-old even though she said no.
He also pleaded guilty to lesser charges regarding the claims he raped the 12 year olds, pleading guilty to accosting a minor for immoral purposes and four counts of possessing child sexually explicit material after police found nude photos of multiple other victims.
Jackie, whose 12-year-old daughter says she was raped four times by the teen, described him as ‘twisted, manipulative and calculating’
Debra, whose 12-year-old daughter says she was raped by the teen outside a movie theater, was furious by the decision by Livingston County Circuit Judge David Reader
When the 45 day sentence was read out in court, one of the victims collapsed into another girls arms. Their families were devastated.
Jackie, whose 12-year-old daughter says she was raped four times by the teen – who she described as ‘twisted, manipulative and calculating,’ was furious he’d escaped with such a lenient sentence.
‘I want to see the courts do what they’re supposed to do and put this individual into long-term treatment if he is to have any chance at rehabilitation,’ Jackie said. ‘I don’t want him to be loose in our community at this point. I don’t believe he can function in a healthy manner.’
Debra, whose 12-year-old daughter says she was raped by the teen outside a movie theater, was furious by the decision by Livingston County Circuit Judge David Reader.
While Livingston County Prosecutor William Vailliencourt slammed the short sentence, saying it was not ‘appropriate.’
‘I share the outrage of many people about the sentence that was imposed,’ he told the Free Press.
On October 25, the prosecution requested a review of the sentence but Reader denied the request, insisting that the punishment was about rehabilitation.
The school district have refused to comment on whether they will allow the boy to return to school.