Three boys, 8 and 9, charged with rape near Atlanta
The judge has issued a gag order in the case. New York. They are 8 and 9 years old. On Monday November 19 2007, they appeared shackled and jumpsuit in front of a Juvenile Court judge in Acworth (Georgia). They are accused of raping a 11-year old girl on Thursday November 15 in a wooded area near apartment houses in Acworth, a town of 19,500 north-west of Atlanta. The young defendants are under 13 and cannot be tried as adults. If convicted, they and could be sentenced to up to five years in a juvenile detention center. At a press conference on Monday, Acworth Police Capt. Wayne Dennard said the alleged rape was reported late Saturday night by the mother of the girl. The boys have been detained since Sunday on charges of rape, kidnapping, false imprisonment and sexual assault. According to the police officer, the girl had been playing with the boys earlier in the day and she was pulled into a wooded area, where one of the boys raped her. On Monday, the boys first audience was closed to reporters and the judge in charge of the case issued a gag order. The parents of the defendants left the courthouse without talking to the media. But before the audience, the father of one of the three boys, said to the local media the sex had been consensual and claimed the girl had invented the rape story after her parents had found out what had happened with the boys. The mother of the alleged victim told a local TV station a very different story. According to her, her daughter brought up the subject. In the last few years, Georgia has been at the subject of a heated controversy in the US because of another sex case. Last month, Genarlow Wilson, a now 21-year old African-American, was freed after serving two years of a 10-year prison sentence. He had been found guilty of aggravated child molestation for having had consensual oral sex with his the girlfriend. The girl was 15 at the time and he was 17. The conviction carried a 10-year mandatory prison sentence and a sex offender designation. The case prompted the Georgia Legislature to change the law and make the charge a misdemeanor but local elected officials did not make it retroactive. Genarlow Wilson was finally freed in October after the state Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that his sentence constituted “cruel and unusual punishment.” The young man now plans to study sociology in college. CommentsYou must be logged in to post a comment. |
||
 |
 |
 |
