After an alleged incident on Thanksgiving in upstate New York, a seven-year-old boy has been charged with rape.
According to WWNY, on March 23, New York State Police charged an unidentified child from Brasher Falls near the US-Canada border with third-degree rape. The boy was released and will be tried as a juvenile delinquent, according to news stories.
According to authorities, the alleged rape was first reported on November 26. There have been no further details released about the incident, including the age of the alleged victim.
It is also unclear what relationship, if any, exists between the suspect and the victim, but authorities have stated that the case will be heard in Family Court.
A Queens attorney who conducts youth defense cases criticized authorities for putting the charges against the 7-year-old as ‘absurd,’ and said he believes they will be thrown out.
“Instinctually, it shouldn’t happen to a 7-year-old. I don’t think you could even realize what you’re doing at 7 years old, so I think it’s absurd to charge a 7-year-old with rape,” Anthony Martone, an attorney told WWNY-TV. “They’d have to prove he actually physically committed this act, which to me it almost seems to be an impossibility.”
