Four men were indicted by a grand jury on a number of felony sex charges after the discovery of a child pornography video that was filmed at a house party and then uploaded to YouTube and Facebook, law enforcement officers say.
The men allegedly filmed themselves having sex with two young girls, one of whom was only 12 years old, at a residence in Southeast Portland, Ore., in May. The age of the second girl was unclear.
The crime came to light after one of the victims' teachers at Centennial Middle School in Portland saw the video on a student's Facebook page and notified school officials, the Portland Tribune reported.
The school then contacted police, who arrested Cedrell Washington, 20, and Deshawn Rogers, 22, in May. Nicholas Clisby, 23, and Terry Scott, 18, were arrested June 6 after police received tips from the public, Portland news station KATU-TV reported.
The charges against the men include rape, sodomy, sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a minor. In Oregon, where the age of consent is 18, rape is a class B felony if the victim is under the age of 14 and the perpetrator is three or more years older. It's considered rape regardless of whether the act was consensual.
Sodomy in Oregon, also a felony offense, is defined as having oral or anal sex with a minor.
Facebook and YouTube have since pulled the video from their websites.
At least one of the four men is connected to a local Portland gang known as the "Unthank Park Hustlers," police say, according to The Gazette Times. Police noted they've seen an increase in child trafficking among gangs as a way to make money, the Times reported.
The case brings to mind the now-infamous Steubenville High School rape incident, in which two of the school's football players, Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond, were convicted in March of raping a 16-year-old girl.
In that case, a large cache of social media, from Instagram photos to Twitter messages, helped piece together the crimes committed by Mays and Richmond, who were also both 16 at the time.
(Hat tip, shazbaz on Reddit)