Boynton Beach Police say that two young boys were arrested last month after they raped a little girl and threatened physical violence against her and her family if she told anyone.
ABC Action News reports that the victim, a 10-year-old little girl, passed a note to her teacher on May 1 that read she was assaulted twice. The first time, two boys, ages and 10 and 12, were reportedly involved. The girl said that the boys, who both live on her street in Boynton Beach, Florida, approached her on a playground and asked her to have sex with them. When she refused, they physically threatened her.
“They said if I didn’t let them, they would beat me up,” the little girl wrote.
According to police, after the boys threatened the victim, they took her to back yard of an abandoned house and took turns sexually assaulting her. The victim said that the first incident happened in either or February or March, at some point before Spring Break.
A few weeks later, the 12-year-old boy acted alone and allegedly approached the little girl again for sex. He forced her into the abandoned house and told her he would “shoot up her house” if she told anyone.
Authorities interviewed the 10-year-old boy’s older brother, who admitted that he heard the suspects threaten the girl, but said he didn’t see the actual act taking place. He also said he later heard the 12-year-old boy threaten to shoot the victim’s house if she didn’t cooperate.
Palm Beach Post reports that when police interviewed the suspects, one of them put the blame on the other, but said that the act was consensual. The other boy said he did a “bad thing” but his mother stopped the interview shortly after.
After a medical examination, the girl’s test results “came back as positive for signs of sexual abuse.”
Both boys were released from a juvenile detention center and are facing charges of sexual battery. They’re both required to wear ankle monitors until their hearing.