The mother of a girl who was videotaped being raped years ago had no idea of the abuse before last week, when a friend saw the child's face on the news and called her, the woman's attorney said on Tuesday.
Attorney Jerry Donohue called the woman "a typical American single mother" who worked six days a week and was "trying to be `supermom.'" He said the abuse appeared to have taken place about four years ago while the child was left in a babysitter's care.
The girl, now 7, appeared to be a "happy, perfectly healthy little girl" during a recent afternoon with medical professionals, Donohue said during a brief statement outside his Las Vegas office. He said she may have been just two years old when she was assaulted.
"I believe she has no memory of this event," Donohue said, although he added that he could not be sure.
Authorities released portions of the video last week, desperate to find a child they feared could have still been in danger.
Donohue said the mother had no relationship with a man being sought in the attack. Police and the FBI are conducting a nationwide manhunt for Chester "Chet" Arthur Stiles, 37, whom they consider armed and dangerous.
Police say they believe Stiles is the man who raped and videotaped the girl, who was about three years old at the time. He has not been charged in the attack but is wanted in a separate case.
Stiles has been described as a violent survivalist who always carries a weapon and has a string of arrests dating to 1999.
The mother had "no relationship with Stiles. None at all," Donohue said. "This event is believed to have occurred while she was at work."
Donohue said he knows who the babysitter was when the mother believes the girl was attacked, but could not reveal that information because of the police investigation.
Donohue said that given the six-month time frame during which the mother believes the abuse could have taken place, the girl might have been assaulted shortly before she turned three.
Donohue pleaded for privacy for the family, and said the mother was cooperating with the police search. He would not identify the woman and asked that photos of the girl no longer be publicized.
Authorities have said the 30-minute tape was recorded four years ago in Las Vegas and surfaced last month.
Donohue said he hoped the young girl's attacker would be captured or kill himself.
"Speaking as a father myself, I wish the guy would dig a hole in the desert and put a gun in his mouth," Donohue said. "Wild West justice, the way I see it."
Police Captain Vincent Cannito said police were checking hundreds of tips. He called Stiles "a very dangerous individual" with a violent past.
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner yesterday signed a coalition deal, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the nation’s first female prime minister. The 11th-hour agreement with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years. If she wins, she will take office the same day. “I’m very much looking forward to working with you on efforts to make Japan’s economy stronger, and to reshape Japan as a country that can be responsible for future generations,”
SEVEN-MINUTE HEIST: The masked thieves stole nine pieces of 19th-century jewelry, including a crown, which they dropped and damaged as they made their escape The hunt was on yesterday for the band of thieves who stole eight priceless royal pieces of jewelry from the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris in broad daylight. Officials said a team of 60 investigators was working on the theory that the raid was planned and executed by an organized crime group. The heist reignited a row over a lack of security in France’s museums, with French Minister of Justice yesterday admitting to security flaws in protecting the Louvre. “What is certain is that we have failed, since people were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of
RSS