Graeme Hamilton National Post

Girl, 11, too young to be charged in sex attack on girl, 6
'Shocking, awful' case: Victim originally concocted story to protect assailant

Police in St. John's have closed their investigation into the sexual assault of a six-year-old girl after identifying the assailant as an 11-year-old girl, too young to be charged under the Criminal Code.

The victim initially told police she was assaulted last Saturday by two teenage boys, but police determined on Thursday that her story was concocted to protect the real assailant, a friend who had been walking her to a video store.

The case has been handed over to provincial child-protection authorities because children under the age of 12 cannot be charged under the Criminal Code.

"It's shocking. It's awful," Bruce Cooper, the assistant executive director of Child, Youth and Family Services in St. John's, said yesterday.

The agency has stepped in to provide counselling to the two girls and their families.

Police have called the attack, which occurred around 5 p.m. in a back lane behind some shops, a "serious sexual assault," and Mr. Cooper said it involved genital touching.

The victim was hospitalized for an examination and released.

He said that given the age of the assailant, the agency takes the view that it has two victims to treat.

"When you have a person that is engaged in this kind of activity, an assault on a younger child, you're obviously wondering whether the person who did this may be acting out something that they themselves experienced," he said.

"It is quite often the case that children who themselves have been victims of sexual abuse will act out what they've experienced with other people."

Sergeant Bob Garland of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary said police can provide few details of the incident now that it has been handed to the child welfare agency.

"At the end of the day, we did not deal with any teenage boys. There were no 15-year-olds, as we were looking for originally," Sgt. Garland said.

"Investigators have confirmed the validity of the sexual assault, which was extremely traumatic for the victim, her family and the family of those responsible," he added.

Mr. Cooper said the victim was initially trying to protect the older girl. "Heaven knows the motivation when a little girl has been sexually assaulted," he said.

He said his agency had been involved with the alleged assailant before Saturday's incident, although he could not discuss the nature of the problems she was facing.

"This is a child who needs some help, and we're involved in trying to give it," he said. He acknowledged that it is sobering when a child receiving help from the agency commits such an act.

"It challenges us to get back and figure out ways that we might do some things differently to be more helpful," he said. "We try to make the differences that matter, but it's an imprecise science."

CANTON, Ohio - A six-year-old has been suspended from school for sexual harassment after he jumped out of the bath and ran naked to the window to stop a school bus.

His mother said the boy was barred from school for three days and forced to sign a paper saying he knew the nature of the charges against him.

"He doesn't understand all that," she said. "All he knows is that he missed a school field trip."

Steve LoDico, a lawyer working on the case for free, has filed an appeal with the school board.

"A very innocent thing happened," he said. "Now we have a six-year-old boy being suspended from school who didn't even understand why. All he knew was that this was his first school field trip ever, and he wasn't going to get to go. That broke the little boy's heart."

The mother said her son was disappointed that he was going to miss the long-awaited school trip to Amish country because of a doctor's appointment. "I put him in the tub so he wouldn't see the bus" when it arrived to pick up her daughter, she explained.

But unfortunately the daughter called out when the bus arrived and her brother heard her. He scrambled out of the tub and ran to the window to yell for the bus not to leave.

According to the school district, the child stood naked "in front of the window and exposed himself to the children on the bus, put his hands in the air and danced around."

Mr. LoDico said parents of the child's fellow students have said the school "blew the incident way out of proportion."

Both children are now attending another school, but the boy's mother said she is appealing the charge against her child because the family was humiliated by the accusation.

An 11 year old girl who sexually assaulted another child was deemed too young for any kind of charge let alone punishment and, we're told, she was 'known'to Youth & Family Services..

But a six year old boy was obviously not too young to be singled out for severe punishment. (when you're only 6, missing a school trip is extreme). What frightens me is the fact this boy was being punished for being a normal, healthy child. I can't see any child with a healthy mind, on hearing the school bus, worrying to get dressed before trying to catch it's attention. By that I mean only a child with a morbidly unhealthy attitude to his/her body would even realise they were naked.

Now, I quite agree that no normal, healthy minded 11 year old would sexually assault anyone, and have no problem with the fact this child was deemed in need of help. But I do have a huge problem with the double standards highlighted by these two tragic news reports.

In the first story we have official recognition that "... the agency takes the view that it has two victims to treat. " Yet in the second a child, a baby, is demonised and labelled a sexual harrasser? One can only shake one's head in shame to belong to any society which would perpetrate such abuse on it's citizens.

If you can still doubt or deny that there is a 'War on boys' in our faminized Western World, I challenge you to take no notice of anything you've read on my Web Site - but go to your library - go to the news archives - or to your Government Statistics offices - read the reports, read the local school news, read the stats breakdown of crime figures (not those by special interest groups - of whatever persuasion) then make up your own minds..