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On Friday, July 28, the Suffolk County District Attorney announced that the man, whose name has not been released, had entered his guilty plea for first-degree rape, a violent felony.
According to court documents and the plea itself, the 20-year-old moved in and started living with the victim and his family in August 2018.
While living with the family, he was entrusted to babysit the victim, aged five at the time, and her two-year-old brother, both of whom were his cousins.
From the time he moved in until March 2022, when watching the kids alone, the man would rape the five-year-old girl.
When the victim told the man that she would tell her mother what he was doing to her, he threatened to kill her or her pet cat.
In March 2022, the man raped the girl, now nine, in front of her six-year-old brother.
The DA’s Office said that, when he saw his sister in distress, he placed the cat on the bed where the rape was happening.
The cat scratched the man and stopped the rape.
A short time after, the mother noticed that the kids were apprehensive about being alone with their cousin. When the six-year-old told his mother that their cousin “hurts” his sister, she immediately contacted the police.
“This defendant, was entrusted to care for his younger cousins, instead subjected one of them to unthinkable sexual abuse for years of her young life,” said District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney.
“This guilty plea and ensuing prison sentence will ensure that the victim can begin to heal from the trauma that she endured without being subjected to testifying in court against her abuser and cousin.”
He is scheduled to be sentenced in court on Wednesday, September 6.
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