Eight teenagers have been charged in the brutal attack of a
16-year-old girl they ruthlessly beat and videotaped while she desperately
tried to shield her head; they planned to post the video on YouTube, as
retaliation.
The Tampa Bay Online (TBO.com) reports that 16-year-old Victoria
Lindsay was lured by a group of girls she knew to a friend’s home, where she
was beat mercilessly because she had apparently made disparaging remarks about
them. All the girls attend Mulberry High School in Mulberry,
Florida, TBO.com reports from arrest
reports.
The six girls that carried out the assault cheered each
other on, while one of them videotaped the inhumane attack, in order to post it
on the video sharing website YouTube, as revenge.
Two other male teenagers apparently acted as lookouts. The attack
occurred on March 30. One of the attackers struck Lindsay on the head several
times and then slammed her against a wall, knocking her unconscious. The girls
took turns beating Lindsay, investigators say.
Three of the girls later took Lindsay in a car and drove her
to another location, where they threatened to beat her even worse if she went
to the police. Then they dropped her off at an intersection.
The eight adolescents were arrested April 2 and charged with
battery and false imprisonment. Seven of them remained in juvenile detention
Tuesday, authorities said. A boy who was charged as an adult had been released
on bail. The three teens who took the victim to the second location are also
charged with felony kidnapping.
Police said the 16-year-old girl was treated for a
concussion, damage to her left eye and left ear, and numerous bruises. Her father,
Patrick, told the Tampa Bay Online that his daughter has permanent hearing loss
in her left ear and blurred vision in her left eye. She is also suffering from nightmares.
“She’s scared. She’s upset,” he said.
In releasing a three-minute segment of the video Monday, Polk
County Sheriff Grady Judd said Monday that parents need to know what their
children are capable of doing, while social-networking sites need to enact standards
that would prevent the posting of such material.
“It’s absolutely an animalistic attack,” Judd said Tuesday
on NBC’s “Today.”
“They lured her into the home for express purpose of filming
the attack and posting it on the Internet.”
Judd has said he asked prosecutors to charge all of them as
adults, according to TBO.com.
