Rape Victim Goes On YouTube To Ask For Help (VIDEO)

CNN reports on the wrenching video of a crying 16-year-old girl who turned to YouTube to plead for help in prosecuting her alleged 23-year-old rapist.

Watch the video below and read more underneath from CNN about this strange story.

The teen, whom CNN interviewed but is not identifying by her last name, is among dozens of young people who are turning to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace to talk about sexual assault.

For an online generation, the Web offers what traditional counseling does not. It's a chance to communicate without having to face someone or fear their judgment. Some people are seeking legal advice and medical information, and many younger victims believe they can warn others about their accused attacker, counselors say.

Comments

[dcshogun]

Some of you commenters are disturbingly quick to dismiss her accusations. While this video (or others like it) raises some real questions about extralegal vigilantism, give this girl a little benefit of the doubt. I don't think most victims of sexual assault are too eager to advertise it. I think we could agree to disagree that no one really wants to be known as "that famous rape victim..." especially with the bile that people bring forward on internet boards like this. From the anonymity of your computers you're calling a 16 year old kid a liar and siding with an accused rapist on little more than a hunch? Fine, but let's agree to disagree and say that rape cases are difficult to successfully prosecute. At the very least the accused assailant is guilty of statutory rape because of their age difference. As for the supposed insincerity of her "acting," it would be worth considering that if it has gotten to the point that the states' attorney is modifying the charges than it's hardly like the video was filmed the night of the supposed incident. ... I don't know this whole topic bums me out to no end. Why didn't I click the link about McCain saying something stupid instead?

[DelawareTom]

dcshogun: "Why didn't I click the link about McCain saying something stupid instead?"

Because you were looking for something new and unusual.

[XCITIZEN]

It's interesting that the very second a person is accused of rape, no matter of their guilt or innocence, they become a 'rapist'.

Dcshogun demonstrates this by referring to the accused as an 'accused rapist'. It makes no difference what the truth is, what the facts are, who's making the accusation, what is motivating the accuser, any time someone is accused of rape, they become a 'rapist', with the modifier 'accused' attached.

In other words, once accused, you are a 'rapist' until proven innocent. THAT'S WRONG.

[ChiGuy]

From the article:

"Florida law states that a 15-year-old cannot give consent to sex. And though Crystal was 15 at the time of the alleged forced encounter, the prosecutor wrote that the case would not be prosecuted because Crystal was "a mere 1 month away" from turning 16, when it would be "legal to give consent," according to documents."
___________________________________________________________________

So, now it's OK as long as the child is "CLOSE" to the age of consent?

[BushBites]

That's fucked up.

And, by the way, so is making 16 the age of consent.

Except for Miami and Key West, Florida's a redneck state with beaches, isn't it?

[Henk]

Using the logic of many of the posters here, her birth certificate is lying!

[DrJimmy]

I don't know about this one....Not one person will help her, listen to her? No one? And she keeps talking about being poor and poverty. Computer, nice dig camera etc...
I'm just saying.....

[thrdr]

Okay so she's not living in a mud hut and sending messages over a cup-and-string arrangement in Morse.
In case you haven't noticed computers and related gadgets are pretty damned cheap these days. I've been skirtting just above the poverty line for the last couple of years now, and I've got a decent PC with a DSL connection. And is it even her computer and cam?

[DrJimmy]

But that is not a Comp cam...it is a digital cam and the sound is to clear for a Comp mic. I'm not saying i'm 100% sure this maybe...untrue....but if it is......also if it just a boyfriend/girlfriend and (i think she is too young) this guy is in the same circle of people....these people may look at an innocent guy as rapist....while he can't go on Youtube now. If he is guilty then he has a much bigger problem..

[andre]

worst youtube acting ever.

[thrdr]

Nice cliche one-line blow-off, but wrong. I'd say that if she's "acting"--by which you mean lying--she's doing a very good job of it. However, given the nature of the medium in which she's communicating, sitting in front of a camera and speaking to an imaginary audience, recording a message for broadcast to the world, to strangers, to anybody . . . well of course she's acting. But lying? Perhaps. But perhaps not.
While some parts of what she says seem to be "practised," that does not make them artificial or her a liar. It's enough explanation that by her own account she's been all over the place with her story, and it's repeatedly fallen on deaf ears. Repeat the facts often enough to people who refuse to believe them, and you can end up not believing them yourself.

[andre]

acting and lying = apples and oranges. what about reenactments? their acting is generally atrocious, but are they "lying"? truth is subjective. I'm making an objective statement about her acting, which is some of the worst I've ever seen. but she could've been a brilliant actor and I would still have the same grasp on the truth (none).

[paganmist]

I don't know what she's lying ABOUT, but she's lying about something. She might have been raped, but this recording is not authentic. I will not dispute that she may have been raped? But for some reason, she has made a completely false recording.

Most of this was memorized, perhaps not word for word, but large chunks at least. Her hesitation at the beginning was false, her speech is awkward and formal - real emotion might make you stiffen up, but heart-wrenching sobs indicate that something has broken. The way she combined words had *thought* behind them. And that much emotion, if real, brings with it physical indicators as well. There was very little shortness of breath/increased need for oxygen, and no loss of physiological control. No unexpected hitches of breath, etcetera.

It isn't heartlessness that makes me say this is fake. It's disgust. I feel like my own experiences and those of women I've known are being mocked. It's hard enough to explain why you are using the word 'rape' in regards to someone that you've slept with many times before.

It is possible that her words are factual, but the tears aren't real, the visible emotions are forced, the words are too scripted. This chick, for whatever reason, is not being authentic in this video. That is why no one will help her. If she was really raped, she needs to drop the tears, even if she thinks they will make people take her more seriously.

[JasonQuiggleGivesaDamn]

Is it difficult to believe, as media savvy as we all are and as certainly as gen Y is,as familiar with the police and the prosecutors as she obviously is- that she would not with her friend's, and possibly families (not to mention her internet friends) consultations A. that she would not prepare a statement to be read, and that perhaps she would get emotionally during her reading of it? If this is an actor, who has created a script and performance in order to garner nationwide acclaim- then goddamn give this chick a contract she is a genius. disregarding the ballsiness of the hoax, which is what this would be according to many of you and therefore a crime- give her a multi-million dollar contract. Theres this guy on the thread saying he is in the industry ( doubtful)- OK, then effing hire her and save your idiot industry from the internets because she is already WAYYYYY ahead of you and WAYYYY more talented than you.

[paganmist]

Wow. You obviously weren't around when thousands of people followed the journal of a 19 year old girl named Kaycee Nicole as she struggled through and then died of cancer.

Only to discover that it was a hoax. Well over a year of regular journal postings, IM chats, and phone calls to people from all over the world, and it turned out to be a hoax.

THAT is a ballsy hoax. THIS? This is on par with the Leave Britney Alone guy, except at least he didn't create a youtube viral video about being raped with fake acting.

To put it bluntly - I have been in this situation. I know too many women who have been. And I have done work that brought me face to face with pain on a very real level, in a variety of situations. Soft pain, loud pain, dignified pain, even pain delivered in recitation form.

This chick might have really been raped, the words might be true on paper, but the emotion in this video is not real. And it makes me nauseated to hear her speak the words and couple them with this farce of an acting job.

It really, really does.

[PoohBear]

I can understand people not wanting to jump to conclusions about her case... However, when multiple women come out and say they were assaulted by the same attacker it is difficult to say her story doesn't ring true. Also, I'm not surprised the law failed in this case. The only real way to obtain justice in cases like this is to take matters into your own hands. More women should take advantage of their Second Amendment rights and "weed out" these rapists from society.

[JasonQuiggleGivesaDamn]

Bravo!

[TroubleNYC]

You read the article incorrectly. Multiple women have not come out claiming they were assaulted by the same guy.

[TroubleNYC]

I'm a little torn here. Not because I don't believe it's real but more because of how everything went down. She seems like someone who was violently raped, against her will. According to prosecutors, it was consensual. Yes, he should have been brought up on statutory rape charges because, hey that's the law (whether you agree with it or not). But if it was consensual, then she's not a victim in the same way that someone who's experienced a "violent rape" (as opposed to a statutory rape). I've always hated the term "statutory rape". Could we change it to "statutory (something else)"? Anyways, I wish there was more to this story because things seem a bit "off" to me.

[jadez]

i dont like this .
why?
because how is anyone to know if anything this young woman is saying is true?
and is she mentally stable?
where are her parents?

i agree someone of authority needs to look into this and fast, but do we really want this to become the norm?

seems to me caution is needed here and the truth of what she is claiming needs to be proved before anything else.

[jeg]

Naturally, the first thing you should do when a woman claims to have been forcibly assaulted is question her sanity and veracity. She's probably just emotionally unstable, right?

I'm not saying she should be automatically believed, either, but the very attitude you're displaying is why she's having to resort to youtube, rather than her local law enforcement.

The answer to your question is that said law enforcement should be doing it's job, and investigating the complaint. This apparently hasn't happened.

[frl]

and posting it on youtube does what to help her case?

[JasonQuiggleGivesaDamn]

...those of you trying to spin this to have ANYTHING to do with the presidential campaign- shame on you. Wow. I guess thats why they invented the word -fanatic-.

[liberalrebuttal]

I cannot watch the video because I am a rape victim , but I would caution all responding here , to err on the side of humanity . I pray , regardless of whether or not this is real, that justice revails.

[JasonQuiggleGivesaDamn]

Furthermore...people posting videos of themselves crying out for help after being raped, especially young girls, IS newsworthy. It IS a new development and could have far reaching consequences for society and the internet. Any who say different are short sighted and kneejerks..question is, why is your knee jerking?

[pineapplegal]

This doesn't feel "real" at all. I receive many emails a week that when checked against truth/fiction websites are 99% fiction! The stuff that can be posted on the Internet is alarming. First, I didn't want to sit thru that video and count but the most common statement out of her mouth was "why won't someone help me?". Help indeed. If this DID happen, first get this girl in front of a therapist instead of a video camera and 2nd, great dad who has stepped up to help, take her computer away! Going "public" with this like this, I feel, can only do her further damage. But it all just strikes me as attention seeking ahd HuffPost, don't put this stuff on your site unless you have absolutely verified its validity.

[JasonQuiggleGivesaDamn]

I have no real proof but i feel like once this page loaded and this thread appeared with all your comments, I began choking on scum. Not sure though. You can never be one hundred percent sure you are choking on a bunch of scumbag's postings. I mean they all seem sincere but you can post anything online. Although any willing to sound like an idiot on this thread is only half as surprising as the possibility of someone lying in public, online and in front of possibly hundreds of millions of viewers on the internets ABOUT BEING RAPED..jesus.

[cookiebee]

How indeed can anyone help this young woman without a name , address, etc.
Or did HuffPost delete, choose to show the raw story without solicitation?
Good luck to this poor girl (if for real)

[erickarl]

Rape is horrible and the thought that this girl had to go do this is awful, but as a director who works with actors every day, this reeks of acting. I'd be careful before publishing this as 'news'

[clevelandchick]

Please do not judge before you look into the truth. If this is true and the girl is posting this on the internet it is a cry for help...my god. Her story is not atypical - neither police or the rest of the justice system looks at rape or domestic violence as a real crime and they almost always leave the victim to fend for herself

Yes, she needs a therapist but first and foremost what any rape victim needs is to know the bastard that did this to her cannot hurt her again. How many times did she say she was afraid this man would kill her? And from what I gleaned from her statemens, I think this man is out and free and lives nearby and she's scared shitless. Therapy isn't going to do jack shit to keep her safe.

[pineapplegal]

From the naiveness I read in your post, you must be 16 too.

[jerseywolf]

I agree with you completely. People need to be careful making comments about this girl. This is likely a real cry for help. And so she needs help. Not derision or judgments or quips.

[prattvictory]

What distorted TV reality show experience/logic gives you the right to opine with whether this girl "feels "real?""

I always thought people should be taken at their word unless proven untruthful. Not today. Armed with the appropriate bed sores on your backside from hours of watching reality TV you can discern when a sixteen year old is lying. And you are such an authority on the subject to be published albeit on the internet.

But there's more. Not only do you know she's lying, you know her intentions and are qualified to wag a accusing finger at the Huffpost for not ignoring her. Could it be that trashing a sixteen year old is your own way of seeking attention?

[jerseywolf]

I agree. It's inappropriate to opine whether or not this feels real. She's not an actor and she's trying to tell her story to a camera, which is probably not something she does every day. I believe her. I feel bad for her. I'm quite certain of one thing: she does not deserve the condemnation or doubts or quips of anonymous people on the internet. Does anyone want to take the chance of contributing more pain to a sixteen year old girl who has suffered through something like this? Perhaps she is reading some of these responses. She deserves nothing less than sympathy.

[InternationalObserver]

Can I just take a moment to alert some posters to a fact they appear not to realize:

You do your cause/political party NO FAVOURS by clumsily using any story/item on HuffPo as a vehicle to 'bash' your opponents. If you want to claim that this story is an indictment on Obama/Clinton/McCain then you'll need to do better than simply post "[Obama/Clinton/McCain] is an [insert invective here]"

And can I also congratulate those that 'know' this girl is an actress/liar. You must have an all-seeing thrid eye ...

[Hare]

I'm not going to comment on the video because I don't have evidence of either authenticity or of being fake. I just wanted to mention about some of the idiotic and hurtful posts. There is a lot of ignorant fools out there. Rape is a horrible despicable act done against the victim's will. It is a crime and an aberration of nature. It ought to be punishable by death each time it happens, no one should get away with hurting another person in this fashion. Or at least do to the rapist the Lorena Bobbitt justice.

[DRaymond]

I think somebody needs to get serious about the prosecutors down there. According to the CNN story under florida law a 15 year old cannot give consent to sex but the prosecutor decided not to charge him with rape because she was only one month from turning 16. Huh? It was a slam-dunk case, no ''he-said, she-said", and if she was willing to go on YouTube I suspect that she would be willing to testify in court.