Twin Acts of Depraved Sexual Violence Hit Brooklyn And The Bronx

CM GIBSON CONDEMNS BRUTAL ACTS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE   

Over the weekend, a Bronx couple was charged with running a sex ring out of their apartment and pimping out an underage girl, according to news reports.

Police sources said a 14-year-old girl held against her will in a Bronx apartment for more than a month was force-fed drugs, raped at gunpoint, beaten and pimped out by her depraved captors.

Prosecutors outlined the lurid and disturbing details of the teen’s torturous time at a University Heights apartment where she was repeatedly raped by 38-year-old Maurice Hines and forced to have sex with other men, according to a criminal complaint.

According to the NY Daily News, Maurice Hines, 38, and 29-year-old Shurine Byron were charged with sex trafficking and promoting prostitution after cops raided their squalid University Heights apartment.

Hines was also charged with rape, after the teen told cops that she had been held captive and pimped out for more than two months.

The rescued teen told cops Hines repeatedly threatened her at gunpoint when she tried to leave. Cops did not find a firearm in the apartment.

In Brownsville, an 18-year-old woman was savagely assaulted by a group of men who took turns raping her during a horrific scene at a Brooklyn playground, officials said Saturday.

The victim was inside Osborn Playground in Brownsville about 11:15 p.m. on Thursday when the five suspects approached her and her father near the park’s handball courts, officials said.

One of the suspects — described by police sources as a man in his 20s or 30s in a red jacket and black pants — pulled a gun and ordered the victim’s dad to leave the playground, according to the complaint. Each of the five men then raped the young woman, the NYPD said.

Police released surveillance video Saturday of the group walking into a nearby deli before the attack.

By Sunday evening, four of the five assailants — all teens — had been arrested. Two teens, one 14 and the other 17, were turned in by their mothers. One suspect remained at large.

In reaction to these sexual assaults, Bronx Councilwoman Vanessa L. Gibson, said, “I am shocked and disgusted by the brutal rape of an 18 year old woman in Brooklyn on Thursday night and the trafficking of 14 year old girl in the Bronx.”

Gibson decried the horrific nature of the sexual violence and urged anyone with knowledge of the whereabouts of the Brooklyn woman’s assailants to come forward or call 1-800-577-TIPS to anonymously report information to the authorities.

“I ask that all New Yorkers keep this woman and her family in their thoughts and prayers as they heal from this horrific attack,” said Gibson in a statement.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement: “I am disgusted and deeply saddened by the horrific attack that took place in Brownsville yesterday evening. We will take every step possible to find and swiftly prosecute the assailants of this vicious crime. This administration has zero tolerance for sexual attacks, and we will work to ensure a crime of this nature never happens again.”

According to NYPD statistics, rapes were up 6.3% citywide in 2015 to 1,439.

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