US: Man raped 6-year-old "100 times", sentenced to 120 years
On Monday, a man was sentenced to 120 years in prison for several accounts of sexual abuse of a girl in Iowa, United States. Steven Douglas Crook Jr. of Bloomfield, Iowa, was slapped with the maximum sentence for raping the girl from infancy to age six. Reportedly, Crook even live-streamed the rape on social media sometimes. Here are more details about this heinous crime.
He encouraged social media followers to watch the videos
Crook pleaded guilty to raping the child "less than 100 times." US Attorney Marc Krickbaum reported that he would even live-stream the rape on the social media app Live.me, encouraging his followers to watch. An investigation revealed stashed electronic devices with videos of the sexual assault. According to the Des Moines Register, one of the storage cards was labeled "child porn and baby rape."
Crook 'so very dangerous' to children, says district court judge
US District Court Judge Stephanie M. Rose condemned Crook for the "horrific" crime and defined his actions as "insidious and manipulative." The judge said he controlled the victim for years, and gave him the maximum sentence because he is "so very dangerous" to children.
'Want to ensure people like him face stiffest penalties'
"Any time a child is abused in Iowa, if we have photographs or videos of the abuse, the defendant can be prosecuted in federal court, and face decades, if not life, behind bars," Attorney Krickbaum said. "We want to make sure that other defendants like him, who are a threat to our children, face the stiffest penalties federal law allows," he added.
Crook's live-in girlfriend also arrested for neglecting child
Crook was arrested in 2018 after being reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and pleaded guilty to four accounts of sexual exploitation of a child. In March 2018, the child, then aged six, was rescued by law enforcement. Crook's live-in girlfriend, Kendra Hoover, was also arrested in January 2019. Reportedly, she found videos of the sexual assault but did nothing.
