Father sentenced for part in girl's rape
A 3½-year-old Rochester girl was home alone, baby sitting her newborn sister, when her father came home with three men.
As her father repeatedly told his friends, C'mon, c'mon, she won't die, the three men took turns raping her.
The girl now 10 watched Friday as her father, Howard Harris, 52, was ordered to prison for 37½ to 75 years as an accomplice to rape.
Although Harris maintained his innocence, Monroe County Court Judge Richard A. Keenan said the crime was one of the worst he had seen as a prosecutor and judge.
I can only imagine what she was thinking when you allowed her to be violated, Keenan said. I can't imagine any parent who would allow this to happen to his child. It's unthinkable.
Keenan handed Harris the maximum sentence, which Assistant District Attorney Cara M. Briggs said Harris richly deserved.
What the defendant did to this child is vile and he deserves no mercy, Briggs said.
The gang rape occurred in January 1998 shortly after the girl's mother gave birth to another daughter and left the girl home alone to care for the newborn, Briggs said.
But authorities had no inkling of what happened until several weeks later, when child protective caseworkers removed the children from their home and the girl was discovered to have a horrific case of gonorrhea.
An investigation was stymied because the girl didn't speak specifically of the rape and was too young to be sworn as a witness, Briggs said. But in 2003, when investigators questioned the girl about allegations that a sibling had been abused, she volunteered what had happened to her in 1998.
Although the girl couldn't identify the men who had raped her, she gave enough credible evidence of her father's involvement for Harris to be charged with three counts of first-degree rape as an accomplice. A jury convicted him of the charges April 22.
Without him, it wouldn't have happened, Briggs said. http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/0710404S61H_news.shtml
A 3½-year-old Rochester girl was home alone, baby sitting her newborn sister, when her father came home with three men.
As her father repeatedly told his friends, C'mon, c'mon, she won't die, the three men took turns raping her.
The girl now 10 watched Friday as her father, Howard Harris, 52, was ordered to prison for 37½ to 75 years as an accomplice to rape.
Although Harris maintained his innocence, Monroe County Court Judge Richard A. Keenan said the crime was one of the worst he had seen as a prosecutor and judge.
I can only imagine what she was thinking when you allowed her to be violated, Keenan said. I can't imagine any parent who would allow this to happen to his child. It's unthinkable.
Keenan handed Harris the maximum sentence, which Assistant District Attorney Cara M. Briggs said Harris richly deserved.
What the defendant did to this child is vile and he deserves no mercy, Briggs said.
The gang rape occurred in January 1998 shortly after the girl's mother gave birth to another daughter and left the girl home alone to care for the newborn, Briggs said.
But authorities had no inkling of what happened until several weeks later, when child protective caseworkers removed the children from their home and the girl was discovered to have a horrific case of gonorrhea.
An investigation was stymied because the girl didn't speak specifically of the rape and was too young to be sworn as a witness, Briggs said. But in 2003, when investigators questioned the girl about allegations that a sibling had been abused, she volunteered what had happened to her in 1998.
Although the girl couldn't identify the men who had raped her, she gave enough credible evidence of her father's involvement for Harris to be charged with three counts of first-degree rape as an accomplice. A jury convicted him of the charges April 22.
Without him, it wouldn't have happened, Briggs said. http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/0710404S61H_news.shtml