Local police have charged an 11-year-old boy from Pennsylvania with sexually assaulting two younger children over the course of nearly three years.
Mercer County state police launched a rape investigation after receiving a report of sexual abuse against the youngster, who lives in rural Otter Creek Township outside Greenville.
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Authorities suspect the youngster assaulted a seven-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl ‘on several occasions’ in town between April 2021 and December 2023. Both victims live in Akron, Ohio, which is more than 70 miles southeast of the accused’s residence in Pennsylvania. It is unknown whether they moved there after the alleged assaults.
After completing their investigation, the Pennsylvania State Police reported: “At the conclusion of this investigation, the actor was charged with sexually assaulting two other juvenile victims between the above dates at the above location on multiple occasions.” Mercer County Juvenile Probation has filed charges against the accused.
Studies show that perpetrators under the age of 18 commit more than half of all child sexual abuse cases in the United States.
However, a 2020 study in the Journal of Juvenile Sexual Abuse found that juvenile offenders typically have different abuse motivations than adult offenders and respond better to treatment.
Unfortunately, this is not the only case of child abuse in Pennsylvania this week. A 24-year-old woman from Pennsylvania will become the third and last person sentenced in connection with the horrible murder of a three-year-old daughter.
Alexis Herrera will go to prison with her sister and brother-in-law after admitting to many felonies in connection with the murder of toddler Bella Rae Seachrist, according to court documents. Herrera pleaded guilty to one count of general criminal homicide, as well as charges of aggravated assault, endangering a child’s welfare, wrongful restraint, and conspiracy to commit criminal homicide.
Three offenders had beaten and malnourished the young child, leaving him comatose in a bathtub during the summer of 2020.
Herrera will submit to Allegheny County Judge Bruce R. Beemer’s will by pleading guilty to the latter open-ended homicide accusation rather than a specific charge of first-degree, second-degree, or manslaughter.
Beemer will preside over an as-yet-scheduled “degree of guilt hearing,” when both parties will present evidence about Herrera’s degree of guilt—or lack thereof—in Bella’s murder. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the judge will then decide whether she is guilty of first-degree murder, third-degree murder, or involuntary manslaughter.
Herrera, along with her sister Laura Ramirez and brother-in-law Jose Salazar-Ortiz Sr., will be imprisoned for Bella’s homicide. Herrera could face a sentence ranging from ten to life without a chance of parole.
