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22nd Mar 2017

Chicago police search for six males involved in sexual assault on teenage girl on Facebook Live

Conor Heneghan

Chicago

It is believed that at least 40 people witnessed the incident on Facebook Live.

Police in Chicago are searching for up to six males believed to be involved in the sexual assault of a 15-year old girl that was broadcast on Facebook Live.

According to CNN, a video broadcast on Facebook Live showed five to six males sexually assaulting a 15-year old girl, whose mother had approached Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson on Monday and told him that her daughter had been missing for 24 hours.

The girl’s mother showed Johnson screengrabs of the Facebook Live broadcast, which indicated that at least 40 people had been watching it at one stage. According to police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, nobody called the police.

The girl has since been reunited with her mother and is recovering in hospital and it is believed that she knows at least one of the males that carried out the assault on her.

Having been contacted by the police, Facebook removed the video immediately; it’s the second time they have had to do so with a Facebook Live broadcast in Chicago this year after a video appeared of a brutal attack on an 18-year old with special needs in January.

A Facebook spokesman said: “Crimes like this are hideous and we do not allow that kind of content on Facebook. We take our responsibility to keep people safe on Facebook very seriously and will remove videos that depict sexual assault and are shared to glorify violence.”

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