Boys, 10 and 12, accused of raping 10-year-old girl in Florida

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. (WPTV) — On May 1, a girl passed a note to a staff member at her elementary school with a secret she had been carrying for nearly three months.

Two boys, 10 and 12, who lived on her street sexually assaulted and threatened her, according to a Boynton Beach Police report.

“They said if I didn’t let them, they would beat me up,” the girl wrote in the note, the report states.

Police say the girl, 10, was assaulted twice, before and after spring break this year. A forensic test came back positive with signs of sexual abuse, a detective wrote in the report.

Boynton Beach Police arrested the two boys in June and are charging them with sexual battery.

WPTV is not naming the victim or her mother for their safety, nor the suspects because they are minors.

Before spring break

The assault happened before her elementary school spring break, either in February or March, the report states. The girl could not remember the exact date, a detective noted. Palm Beach County School District spring break was the third week of March.

The detective said the two boys went up to the girl while she was playing in the neighborhood and asked her to have sex. When she said no, the boys told her they would beat her up if she didn’t, the detective said.

The boys pushed her into the backyard of an abandoned house and forced themselves on her, according to the report.

After spring break

The girl told detectives in an interview that the second time was in March after spring break. The report said the 12-year-old boy approached the girl again while she was playing in the neighborhood, but this time by himself.

He threatened her when she said she told him no and he pushed her into the abandoned house, the report states. The boy told her not to tell anyone what happened or else he “would shoot up her house,” according to the report.

When detectives interviewed the 10-year-old’s older brother, they said he told them he heard the two boys threaten the girl but did not witness the alleged assault, according to detectives.

The older brother said he heard the 12-year-old threaten to shoot up the girl’s house after they left the abandoned house, according to the report. The older brother denied having a part in the sexual assault, the report states.

“A very serious case”

Assistant State Attorney Cheo Reid was assigned to prosecute the case, which in court he said was being considered “a very serious case.”

The boys were taken to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s juvenile detention facility, and a judge eventually released them. They must wear an ankle monitor, and neither can stay in the girl’s neighborhood.