Brazilian Police to Investigate the Gang Rape of 12-Year-Old Girl

Rio de Janeiro police opened an investigation to identify the protagonists of a video posted on social media which showed the gang rape of a young girl, officials said.

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The investigation follows the complaint from the aunt of a 12-year-old to the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro State police station.

“We haven’t heard from the victim yet because she is in shock and her mother couldn’t come to file the complaint because she had to stay at home taking care of her,” Juliana Emerique, head of the police station, said.

The video circulating on social media with scenes of the gang rape was shown to the investigators. In the video, five young people appeared naked next to the victim in a room of a house located apparently in Baixada Fluminense, a region with high levels of poverty in Rio de Janeiro’s metropolitan area.

The minor tried to hide her face and complained of pain when she was violated by one of the young people, while another shouted at her to be quiet, the video showed.

The new complaint came almost a year after the police investigated a similar case in May 2016. One of the suspects posted a video of a few men brazenly insulting a 16-year-old girl on Twitter.

Police said the girl told them more than 30 men had assaulted her. But investigations showed that the crime was committed at different times by about 12 men.