[Omah]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21823042

Two high school football players in the US state of Ohio have been found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl.

Trent Mays, 16, and Ma'lik Richmond, 17, attacked the girl after a drunken party in the town of Steubenville. Both wept as the verdict was read out.

The case came to light via text messages, online videos and social media posts made the morning after, attracting nationwide attention.

The two were sentenced to at least a year in juvenile detention.

Mays was sentenced to another year for taking pictures of the naked victim, and the judge said both might stay in detention until they reach 21.

The case was thrust into the national spotlight after attention by bloggers and the hacker activist group Anonymous.

Some claimed that the community - including local police - had sought to cover up the crime to protect the accused, who were members of a celebrated high school American football team.

The case focused attention on teenage alcohol abuse and highlighted the increasing use of social media as evidence in court, the BBC's Matt Wells in Washington says.

Last August, Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond left a party with a 16-year-old girl and sexually abused her, first in a car and then at a friend's house.

The victim was so drunk she had no memory of the attack, but prosecutors said she had been "treated like a toy".

There was no physical evidence, but details of the evening emerged from text messages, tweets and humiliating photos posted on the internet by the attackers and other party-goers.

The case caused a bitter divide in Steubenville, a small and economically depressed former steel town that had immense pride in its high school football team, known as the "Big Red".

Some of the witnesses were friends of the accused who gave evidence against them in return for immunity from prosecution.

The biters bit .....

[Shaun]

Weird, was just reading about this.

I watched the video of a friend of theirs, Michael Nodianos, laughing about it on YouTube, too, saying things like "she was deader than Caylee Anthony" and "it wasn't really rape because you don't know if she wanted to do it". Watch below:

Spoiler:

Youtube video

Can't believe they only got a year (well one got 2 for distributing photos) to be honest... and hope this isn't the end of the story. The coach in particular appears to have given them the impression that he could make the story go away... football culture is worryingly fraternal and willing to brush over these things for the sake of their futures. There was an interesting article on 'jock culture' in Forbes:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/bobcook/...-rape-culture/

Either way, their lives are ruined. Oddly Ma'lik appears to be remorseful... there was a report somewhere that he approached the family of the victim in tears... it just seems so appalling that they're the only two parties sentenced so far. The people in the video are equally disgusting.

[Roy Mars III]

Originally Posted by Shaun

football culture is worryingly fraternal and willing to brush over these things for the sake of their futures.

in small towns especially.

You hear the horror stories years later of stuff football players do that is covered up in small towns because high school football is the best thing there and the pride of the town

Mostly happens in the south, or places like Ohio were high school football is a huge deal

[Roy Mars III]

They should have been tried as adults. They were old enough to know what they were doing

[Shaun]

Oh...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...?utm_hp_ref=tw

The Ohio teenager seen making crude jokes about a 16-year-old's rape in a viral video has received threats and was forced to leave The Ohio State University, his lawyer said.

Michael Nodianos' attorney, Dennis McNamara, told members of the press his client has had his email, Facebook and Twitter accounts hacked, according to the Herald Star.

"Michael is the person on a video that was posted on several Internet sites last week and he made several very callous comments and is ashamed and embarrassed by the comments on the video. He regrets those comments," McNamara said at a press conference. "He was not raised in that manner. I don't believe it was a crime to make the video, but it was stupid."

The Daily Beast reports that Nodianos and his family had received electronic threats, according to McNamara.

“There were people trying to find his class schedule at OSU, trying to access him there,” McNamara said. “Some have even been at the dormitory during the fall term looking for him."

Seems a bit excessive hunting him down like an animal, and including his family in the vitriol, but well... stupid decisions earn stuff like that.

[Shaun]

Also, wow @ the Onion lol...

Youtube video

guessing it's an attack on CNN's coverage of the accuseds:



edit: nvm the video's from 2011, so it's not about Steubenville. But still, oddly appropriate.