Two Arkansas men have confessed to raping a 6-year-old girl after a hospital found she was suffering from multiple sexually transmitted diseases.
27-year-old Demarcus George (pictured) and 33-year-old Mario Waters admitted during a federal court hearing in Little Rock last week that they’d had sexual contact with the little girl and were involved in sex-trafficking her, prosecutors said.
The two men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of the girl in a plea deal that will cancel their upcoming jury trial and spare the 6-year-old from having to testify.
Authorities narrowed in on George and Waters after the girl was taken to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in February 2018 suffering from symptoms that doctors later determined were caused by the STIs.
The girl later told FBI investigators that George and Waters had raped her in a hotel room, prosecutors said.
Blood and urine samples from the two men showed they had both tested positive for the STIs that little girl had contracted.
Meanwhile, investigators also located the hotel in Little Rock where the offenses occurred based on descriptions provided by the victim, including that a curtain was in the middle of the room and a specific picture was hanging on the wall.
The hotel’s financial records showed the girl’s mother, who has since lost custody of the child, had paid for a room with a credit card in March 2018.
“The unspeakable crimes committed against this child remind us how vitally important it is to have law enforcement officers willing to investigate and put a stop to these horrific actions,” acting US Attorney Jonathan D. Ross said in a statement.
“These guilty pleas will spare the young victim from having to relive her experience on the witness stand at a trial.”
The two men, who are facing up to life in prison, will be sentenced at a later date.
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