(Mica_R)
A tech-savvy 12-year-old Minnesota girl reported a sexual assault by her mom’s ex-boyfriend by using her iPod to contact a friend through Facebook.
KARE11.com reports the alleged perpetrator, who was found dead in his jail cell in an apparent suicide, took the girl’s phone away before he attacked her the first time. After the man left her room, she made a plea for help via Facebook, presumably using an iPod Touch, to the attacker’s daughter. Authorities arrested the man after the girl escaped following a second attack and called her mother.
12-year-old girl reports sexual assault via Facebook [Kare11.com via MSNBC]
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I’m on a horse.
+1
How is this relevant or appropriate on an article like this?
It is as relevant and appropriate as this story is to a consumer rights website that has a tagline “shoppers bite back”
until you said this, I forgot I was on consumerist and not gizmodo.
that horse is amazing
-1
No, you’re just an asshole. There’s a difference.
Ummm … ok; so she reported an assault using technology. The news is?
The real news is that it was actually a Microsoft Kin.
Empathetic much?
She’s 12. She had just been sexually assaulted and was afraid for her life — so she couldn’t just run to a phone and risk being assaulted again. She had the presence of mind to use Facebook to reach out for help at that point..
Get it now?
Yes yes, but that makes it no more related to Consumerist
Agreed. Not Consumerist-worthy. News-worthy yes, not Consumerist.
Yeah and it didn’t even help at all being rescued. The story says she escaped and called her mother. So.. big @#$* deal.
That Consumerist posted a story that involved Facebook that wasn’t negative.
Incredible. Just astounding.
‘m gld ths grl gt w nd vrythng, bt wh s ths n Cnsmrst?
I don’t know exactly, but the fact that the girl used her iPod Touch to get help, and push a dresser against the door, and crawl out to get to a phone…that’s just amazing. I’m glad this story got posted.
Perhaps the door opened out?
Only reasons I can think of is that Facebook is often up for consumer privvacy concerns so this time Facebook is in the news in a positive light. Also when they go to post this on Facebook it will be more interesting for Facebook users? I dunno.
scumbag got off easy.
so did taxpayers.
This.
The shame is all the money spent on the investigation into his death in the cell, and the man-hours spent on paperwork.
We have hit an all time low… Posting that you got raped on facebook? Is NOTHING sacred? Really people, you need to keep that stuff to yourself.
What is with you people today? Keep a rape to yourself!? Talk to someone it’s actually happened to, then come back and apologize.
Mark Zuckerberg’s philosophy is that people WANT to be connected and WANT to share this type of info with the whole world and to be part of a community. It’s Web 2.0, man!
Keep rape to yourself? Because hiding problems always solves them.
I hope this is sarcasm…
Yes, yes it was. But why not, instead of using facebok, dial 911, which is quicker, and tell them the address. Seriously MUCH faster than finding the person, sending the message and hoping they check their facebook in time.
911 – 60 seconds tops to ramble off your situation and address.
Facebook – 3 minutes to find, type and send a message. ? Minutes to see and respond to the message.
Those people were going to call police anyways!
RTFA.. He took her phone away. Where’s your 911 now?
Exactly. Read the article before you start trying to be witty and sarcastic.
Hard to call 911 from an iPod touch. Even harder when your attacker had previously taken your phone away.
I’m assuming she wasn’t near a phone, but she had her iPod Touch, which has Internet access.
Seriously, read the fine article before posting an indignant comment. Especially try to read the fine article AFTER someone indicates that your response was improper, BEFORE you follow it up with another comment making a fool of yourself.
And in case you still have not read the comment: The predator took her cellphone away.
Wow, really? It wasn’t like she updated her status with the info and her friends all gave her a thumbs up – she “found the defendant’s daughter online and asked her to call her mother” – a private message…. Read much? Judge much?
I rarely call for the outright disemvowelment of someone else, but I think your comment completely justifies a disemvowelment.
Well, pecanpie, if you say so, but I think it was funnier the first time:
“W hv ht n ll tm lw… Pstng tht y gt rpd n fcbk? s NTHNG scrd? Rlly ppl, y nd t kp tht stff t yrslf.”
(pecan, look up “vowel” vs. “bowel.” You meant the second one.)
I think you need to google “disemvowelment.”
You…don’t make much sense…
I think she meant the first. Perhaps you should look it up before making even more of an ass out of yourself.
The second would be a bit harsh for a trollish comment. Definitely the first would be more appropriate.
I don’t know about that. I’ve got a pair of sharp knives here, and unfortunately … dead guys don’t scream enough for the process of disembowelling them for raping twelve-year-old CHILDREN to be sufficiently satisfying.
I see you haven’t been on the internet for very long. ^_^
Because others have already pointed out that you are a moron, I will clue you in as to why this story is newsworthy.
She didn’t post that she got raped; she used Facebook to send a message to someone she knew online to call her mother immediately.
Alright, I didn’t RTFA, but a question. How is this consumerist related? I rest my case.
So the perpetrator, who was found dead in a suicide, took the girl’s phone away and attacked her? So he was a zombie? Creepy.
Yes, from jail, where he was after being arrested. TIME LOOP?!
Jason, is that you?
Is this an advertisement for iPods? For Facebook? As a consumer, what am I supposed to learn from this?
Buy a gun. Not every sexual predator offs himself – it’s best to be proactive.
+1
Yes. 12 year olds everywhere should arm themselves.
Hm, I read this as an advertisement for
4/12
DOUBLE DOWN EVERY DAY
The whole thing (story) is everything that is wrong with the world today. Who agrees with me?
Ok, seriously. I’m seeing a lot of posts poking fun at this? Really? A little girl gets raped, and you think it’s funny? Idiots.
I don’t think anybody thinks it’s funny. It’s just that its relation to the kind of content you’d expect on this site is suspect.
Look at the comments from Draygonia, ColHapablap and JRock. All insensitive, idiotic attempts at humor.
yep. that happens on the internet.
You don’t have to like people being stupid even if you expect it.
LOL. I sent my story about Apple doing me wrong and they post this sh!t?
WOW.
lol? LOL? a story is posted about a little girl, after having been ASSAULTED, having the presence of mind to grab her ipod, get on facebook, and get help, because the scumbag took her phone away. and you laugh because consumerist didn’t post your story?
fuck you.
The point everyone is trying to make – is that it’s not a piece that seems to belong on this blog.
This is pretty much par for the course. I’ve sent in an account of deceptive advertising and two companies refusing to honor warranties, and another involving a local AT&T authorized dealer committing outright fraud. Neither story was ever posted, though within a week of either submission there were a dozen filler articles like this that bear no relation to consumer issues .
Between this and the growing trend of posting most submissions as they were received, with no further details, investigation, or even commentary, I’ve lost a lot of faith in this site. It wasn’t always this way. What happened?
*awaits disemvowelment*
Help I am being sexually assaulted.
Steve Jobs
Sent from my iPod Touch
I make my own assaults at hom…oh, wait. Never mind.
At least the guy saved us the cost of a trial.
An iPod is a consumer electronic, I think that’s the relative idea here. (maybe) I still think a dog calling 911 is cooler. Young kids are all over technology these days, so it’s not very impressive they know how to use it. Terrible situation though, I’m glad the guy did the world a favor.
Also a nice award for the mother who left the girl alone with her ex-boyfriend/housemate while she went off to stay with her new boyfriend.
God bless old timers that don’t know shit about technology.
I read the article and it made no mention of the suspect offing himself in a jail cell…
It’s not in that article but here is a link to one that has that story:
http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2010/07/raymond_cesmat.php
the girls being sexually assaulted and she uses an iPod TOUCH of all things to get help? the irony.
For once, an article about the internet, a child rapist, and a 12 year old girl that doesn’t make reactionary parents try to shut down the internet. “Think of the children”… We did and gave them the tools to protect themselves against the _real_ threat, drunken boyfriends of the sluts mothers.
Holy shit that came out wrong! Looks like the strikethrough html tag doesn’t work. Please remove “sluts”
LOL, forgiven.
Eh, still not much better, even if the strike-through had worked. Calling people sluts because they were once associated with assholes who will stop at nothing to assert power over a young child isn’t exactly the best thing. Calling the perp an asshole cockface? Sure thing. Calling the mother a slut despite the fact that, it might be hard to believe this part, she didn’t tell him to rape her daughter. If she did then sure, call her a horrible mother, but even so, not a slut.
The idea behind the strikethrough is that the poster would then NOT be calling the mother a slut, but rather, making an ironic reference to what he or she perceives would be a widespread prejudice.
This type of story is exactly why I stopped my subscription to Consumer Reports as soon as I learned they bought The Consumerist. Well done on trying to get eyeballs on a story of a 12 year old getting raped.
“Girl Uses iPod, Facebook To Catch Sex Predator” is factually incorrect. You either did not read the story correctly or decided to stretch the truth. I’m not even going to go into the whole “Why is this on the Consumerist” debate.
The poor girl merely attempted to use Facebook to alert somebody and that didn’t really do her any good. She had to escape from her house and use a plain old payphone to call her mother. Please explain how “Girl Uses iPod, Facebook To Catch Sex Predator”
She did catch him – she used her iPod Touch to access her Facebook account, which she then used to send a message for help. She alerted police, and they arrested him for it.
There’s also absolutely no evidence to suggest that her sending a message via Facebook didn’t accomplish anything because there was no opportunity. She sent a message, he came back, and she had to fend him off again. After pushing the dresser against the door, what was she supposed to do? Clearly he wasn’t going to leave her alone. It’s possible she escaped and called her mother, and that news trickling down through the community let the defendant’s daughter, whom she messaged, know that the girl had found help.
“There’s also absolutely no evidence to suggest that her sending a message via Facebook didn’t accomplish anything because there was no opportunity”
Yeah, but there’s no evidence that suggests it DID do anything.
Sending a FB message to someone probably isn’t the quickest way to get help – I’m guessing the police arrived because she called them on the payphone.
There is nothing remotely funny about what happened, and I hope the guy got a little just deserts in the slammer before he shuffled off the mortal coil. However, she was 12 and shouldn’t have been on Facebook. That’s splitting hairs at this point. I’m just glad they caught the scumbag.
Now if you want to be totally insensitive and an a-hole, ask how many people liked her status update. Just saying, the joke was there. Poor taste, hell yes, but it’s still there.
The thing that blows my mind is that a twelve year old has an iPod Touch. Really? The cheapest one’s like $200…
But good for her on getting away.
It doesn’t specify that she has a new one.
and a Facebook account
Um that is not unusual, I know 4-5 year olds who have their own iPod touch or that play with an older relatives or parents iPhone. The reason for this is that kids will play the free games and there are enough free games to keep kids busy for a long time. Its a lot cheaper than buying a Nintendo DSi which costs just as much and comes with the price tag of $30-40 per game oh yeah and no demos so you can buy your kid a $30 game and they might throw it down and hate it, good use for $30. I too was wondering why so many kids had the iPod touch and now I know, I also plan to buy one for myself. The iPod touch has also dropped in price to around $160-170 on Amazon for the lowest priced model, so its not exactly as expensive as we think it is.
Goddammit, people. Facebook has an instant messagey thing, so she saw the other daughter was online and spoke to her through that. It was the fastest way she could get help. The article doesn’t make that especially clear, but there you go.
Also, the guy later hung himself in prison. Good riddance.
I want to know why her mother left her alone in the house with grown man who wasn’t related to her, and why it happened twice.
Nevermind. I see that the classy responsible mother left her 12 year-old daughter with the guy who she was living with while she spent the night at her new boyfriend’s house. They really should find something to charge her slutty mom with while they are at it. Child endangerment maybe????
I’m disappointed more and more about Consumerists articles…
Awesome that the creep killed himself, too. That way a liberal judge can’t let him back out to terrorize the innocent.
Even the conservative judges have to let em out when the time is served.
+1
great human interest story about tragic events, one that I would expect to see via AP newswire, or some news aggregating service. just not consumerist.
Too bad a better class of criminal didn’t get to him before he killed himself. Yes really, a better class.
The story and some of the comments are fuzzy. No, I don’t think the girl “posted that she got raped on Facebook” (i.e. on the perp’s daughter’s Wall or even in say a status update) although that inference could be drawn. I think she “sent a message” to and for the perp’s daughter only.
Facebook is a perfectly valid tool to communicate privately with friends, without posting to the whole world. Failure to grasp this is the root of many Fails.
Good for her, and good for him. A smart girl who used her brains in a crisis, and one fewer scumbag in the gene pool.
In Soviet Russia, iPods Touch you!