During my more than 10-year career as a crime writer, I have covered countless crimes and atrocities. I've developed a pretty thick skin when it comes to covering humankind’s most deviant acts. However, every now and then I still come across a case that makes me take a step back and wonder what the world is coming to. Such was the case with a crime I learned about yesterday in south England involving the alleged rape of a young mother by a group of teens who filmed the incident and posted a clip of it on the popular video-sharing Web site Youtube.com.
The video was roughly three minutes long and showed the unconscious victim, a 25-year-old mother of two, being raped by a teenager. The victim’s children, ages two and four, could be heard crying in the background.
The victim allegedly told police that on the day the incident occurred she had been invited to a friend's house. While there, she was offered a glass of champagne, but shortly after drinking from the glass she felt strange and began to fall in and out of consciousness. It was then, she alleges, that three teen boys, aged 14 to 16, took turns raping her over a 14-hour period.
"I heard my daughter screaming when it happened and my young son was there, but he could not get to me," the victim said in an interview with Icsouthlondon, adding, "I was all right at 1:00 a.m., but I was out of it by 1:30 a.m. and I didn't wake up until 3:00 p.m. that day."
According to the victim, the rape occurred some three months ago, but she did not have the courage to notify police until Feb. 13, when she learned about the YouTube video clip. In an interview with Thesun.co.uk, the victim described her shock when she found out about it.
"Putting it on the Internet was an abomination," the victim stated. "…What happened was so awful and I didn’t want anybody to know about it. I hoped it would all just go away, but because it was on the Internet it didn’t."
Police have yet to officially comment on the crime; however, investigators with the sex crimes unit have confirmed they are investigating the case. The video of the incident, which was viewed more than 600 times, was removed from YouTube Friday afternoon.
While researching this case I found several message boards where users were discussing the incident. To my disgust, many posters focused more on the fact of the alleged rapists’ stupidity for getting caught, rather than the inhumanity of the incident itself.
It is a strange world we live in today, and cases like this make me fear for the future of mankind.