If you thought the case of the 8-year-old Liberian girl who was allegedly gang raped in Arizona by four boys couldn't get any worse, it has. According to KTVK-TV in Phoenix, her parents were arrested on Friday, Nov. 20, for child abuse:
On Friday, police served arrest warrants for Hemie Dio, 59, and Wedeh Dio, 47, for numerous counts of child abuse. Officers waited for them to come home from work and then arrested them as they got out of their car.
Hemie Dio yelled at a 3TV reporter who was there while he was being arrested; Wedeh Dio said nothing.
Both parents are charged with seven counts of child abuse. Police say they used sticks, wires, even their fists to hit their daughter. Witnesses say they often left their daughter wandering the apartment complex alone at night, begging for food. SOURCE: KTVK-TV
Each parent is being held on $30,000 bond, with the father's arraignment set for Nov. 30. The mother's court date had not been set as of this weekend.
As I posted back in July, the child was allegedly gang-raped by four boys -- one of them her cousin -- and then rejected by her parents for shaming them. The story made international headlines, with the Liberian government weighing in to say the victim should be embraced, not shunned.
I hope she is faring better in the custody of Child Protective Services, where she has been placed for her own safety.
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Sheryl Huggins Salomon is contributing editor of Black Voices, where she writes about politics and society. She is co-editor of the 'Nia Guide for Black Women' series of self-improvement books and the former publisher of Shade magazine. Follow her on Twitter or contact her at BVCEditor@aol.com.
Comments: (15)
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By: Jimmie on 11/23/2009 11:48AM
Rape of young children is common in Africa. Young kids are forced to sell their bodies to men and grown women for sex, do to the large poverty crises in Africa, and some are just rapped.New born babies have even been rapped by warring tribes. African men are the worlds leading child preditors.When you go to Africa, you will see young homeless children on the streets by the thousands, begging for food or clothing, which makes them easy victoms for sex. Some tribes offer their daughters as young as eleven years old to grown men to mary, providing they can offer the family financial gifts. African school kids are propositioned by men for sex as they leave school. This is a serious crises and the world governing body needs to take a stand.
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By: John Lindsay on 11/23/2009 3:21PM
Jimmie: Rape of young children is common in Africa.
JL: What a line of irrelevant crap.
The parents were charged with 7 counts of child abuse...NOT rape.
As a matter of fact, how many African, and eventually Negro, children and teens were raped during slavery by White plantation owners and their male family members and friends?!
Shall I mention Strom Thurmond's rape of his family's under-age maid?!
What about all the children that are raped in Utah and other states where there are radical Mormon sects who allow White men to marry and have sex with child brides?!
Additionally, there is a large pedophile problem in America, too....as we've seen on 20/20, Primetime Live and other sources.
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By: Ijeoma on 11/23/2009 2:29PM
Jimmie, you're post astounds me in its ignorance.
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By: Mike on 11/23/2009 2:38PM
@Jimmie - get real. Any study of recorded history shows sexual exploitation goes back to ancient times and is European in origin. The Romans and Greeks made no secret of their preference for sodomizing young boys. Unfortunately for Africa, since the 1st Arab slavers (who had so-called jew help) which morphed into the TransAtlantic Slave Trade which morphed into Colonialism, sexual exploitation of African children by foreign & largely European outside forces - has been a fact. Do you think those slave owners and colonizers weren't having sex with those slave and colonized children? You have to know the background to understand the present time, don't you? What you're witnessing in Africa with the instability is just the normal result of shaking off colonialism and starting anew. You have to have perspective and understand the timeline and you obviously don't.
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By: lazonia on 11/25/2009 9:26AM
Jimmy, this is not Africa! You idiot. And NO ONE should be force to have sex
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By: Mike on 11/23/2009 2:43PM
@Jimmie - Your wild stories are just lies. You been watching your grand mammies and grand pappies old Tarzan movies?
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By: PeteRocks on 11/23/2009 8:08PM
Yes he has....lol
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By: Servant2All on 11/23/2009 2:55PM
Hmm. No email confirmation. Is that because I didn't use my real name - Howard Barrett - or that Black Voices can't take criticism within the comments?
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By: John Lindsay on 11/23/2009 3:27PM
Servant2All: Hmm. No email confirmation. Is that because I didn't use my real name - Howard Barrett - or that Black Voices can't take criticism within the comments?
JL: I've had the same problem a few times, and think it's a technical problem.
Sometimes my comments are posted immediately, and other times it has taken several minutes for my comments to post.
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By: Lynn on 11/23/2009 7:57PM
Jimmie you have ruffled some feathers. But, your opinion is valid. We, black folks, don't like
to hear anything bad about ourselves.
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