Teen is convicted in rape of boy, 8, faces 16-year term

7/12/2006

A 15-year-old boy who sexually assaulted an 8-year-old boy at a South Toledo arcade entered into a plea agreement yesterday that will result in him going to prison for 16 years.

Cristoffer Curey pleaded no contest in Lucas County Common Pleas Court to one count each of rape and kidnapping. Judge Frederick McDonald accepted the teenager's pleas and found him guilty.

Then a resident at a group home for boys in Pemberville, Ohio, Curey lured the victim into a restroom at Nickelworld on New Year's Day and sexually assaulted him. Two days earlier, the victim had turned 8. He went to the video game arcade at 2545 South Reynolds Rd. with his mother and a friend to celebrate the event.

While the possible penalty for the two crimes is 20 years in prison, the plea agreement calls for Judge McDonald to impose a 16-year sentence on Curey at his sentencing Aug. 15.

Curey, of Wauseon, was sent to the Pemberville Youth Academy for treatment after he was found delinquent in connection with gross sexual imposition in Fulton County Juvenile Court. The youth academy in Freedom Township closed last month.

Ian English, an assistant county prosecutor, told the court Curey used a toy sword he won at the arcade to lure the boy into the restroom. He said the victim's friend noticed the boy was missing and went looking for him in the restroom, but was unable to open the blocked door.

The friend alerted the boy's mother, who found her son being assaulted in the restroom. She detained the defendant until police arrived.

Mr. English said Curey made a full confession to police. He was charged in Juvenile Court and later certified to stand trial as an adult.