HOUSTON, Tex. — A 10-year-old girl from Texas has been charged with rape as a result of a game of “doctor” with a group of other children.
According to Fox 26, the girl is known as Ashley — an assumed name to protect her identity because she faces very tough allegations.
“I was at the track with my friend ‘cause I like running track with my friend and then my mom called my friend and she told me that my mom said I had to come home,” Ashley said.
Ashley’s mother needed her to come home because the 4th grader was sought by police for aggravated sexual assault.
“I was crying and they took me to the car and I didn’t want to get in and I was crying and I was moving and trying not to get in the police car and my mom told me to calm down,” Ashley recalled.
The allegations stem from an incident that occurred in April in the courtyard of a Houston apartment complex. Quanell X, who has been working with the family, says Ashley was among a group of children playing. That’s when a neighbor saw something and called the mother of a 4-year-old boy who was playing in the group.
“I’ve never dealt with a child this young being accused of a crime,” X said. “In fact, this was nothing more than inappropriate horseplay that has now led to a child that is ten years old being charged with aggravated rape.”
X says Ashley, who as 9 years old at the time, was playing doctor with the other kids in the courtyard.
Ashley spent four nights in custody at a juvenile detention center in June as a result of her arrest, which came about two months after the incident.
Ashley’s mother said, “It’s a nightmare even having to go through something like this because that’s my baby… Just the thought of her going through something like this — it hurts me.”
Ashley’s mom says the Houston police sex crimes investigator did not allow her to sit in during the questioning of her daughter. She says the 45-minute interrogation left her 10 year old in uncontrollable tears and fear.
“She was telling me they were threatening her with juvenile detention and stuff like that if she didn’t tell,” the mother said.
A spokesperson for the Houston Police Department says they’re not commenting on the case because it involves a juvenile.
The child’s court date has been set for October.
Source: Fox 26