A former day care worker in Philadelphia was convicted Friday of abducting a 5-year-old girl from her school classroom and sexually assaulting her during a 19-hour ordeal.
Christina Regusters, 21, donned a Muslim dress and veil to impersonate the girl's mother and take her from Bryant Elementary School in January 2013, then posed as three different people to trick the blindfolded child.
The girl was found half-naked the next morning at a cold, dark playground.
The defense had questioned during the three-week trial whether Regusters could have acted alone.
But prosecutors said [Regusters] had viewed child pornography and Japanese anime involving child sexual torture and also looked up how to destroy DNA evidence.
'All the evidence pointed to the existence of one abductor and assailant — Regusters,' prosecutor Erin O'Brien said.
Regusters, who is scheduled for sentencing Dec. 15, was convicted of all counts, including kidnapping, aggravated assault and indecent deviate sexual intercourse.
The now-7-year-old girl suffered devastating injuries and needed a colostomy, but she has recovered physically and is now in second grade. She testified briefly during the trial.
Regusters had moved in with an aunt in Philadelphia after her father went to prison in Maryland for assaulting her and a sister.
She had worked at a day-care program the girl attended after school, but had been suspended and was home the day of the abduction.
School officials did not realize the girl was missing for six hours, until dismissal time.
The victim's family is suing the Philadelphia School District.(Source)
From 6abc.com
Christina
Regusters' father, 40-year-old Demetreaus Moore, was recently released from
prison and is living in Maryland as a registered sex offender. Back in
2005, when Christina was 11 years old, Moore was charged with two counts of
sexually abusing a minor. He was convicted and went to jail in 2006.
Moore
admits he went to jail for sexually abusing a minor. And he says he has the
deepest sympathy for Christina's alleged victim and her family.
He
says no child should go through anything like that.
Police
say Regusters, dressed in Muslim garb, abducted the five-year-old from her
classroom at Bryant Elementary School last month. The
girl was sexually abused and then dropped off in a park in Upper Darby wearing
only a t-shirt.
Regusters'
lawyer, W. Fred Harrison Jr., says she had nothing to do with the abduction and
rape.
He
says, because of her own troubled childhood, Christina is more protective of
children than most.
Regusters
had been working at the daycare where her alleged victim was cared for after
school.
Police
say she posed as the girl's mother to get her out of school and then took her a
few blocks away to the home she shares with her aunt and her aunt's boyfriend.
Sources
say Regusters may have acted alone initially, but they suspect she had help
covering her tracks before the police closed in.
Police
have collected dozens of pieces of possible evidence from Regusters' home for
laboratory analysis. That analysis is ongoing at several labs, and the police
say it may be a week or more before they wrap things up. (SOURCE)
Prison sources told NBC10 that the
woman charged with the kidnapping and rape of a 5-year-old girl abducted from a Philadelphia classroom has been moved
to a different correctional facility for her safety.
Christina
Regusters, 19, was recently transferred to
the Northampton County Prison after being assaulted, according to
prison sources. Regusters’ attorney, Fred Harrison, says his client was moved
because this is a high-profile case. Regusters
is accused of holding the
5-year-old captive inside
a Cobbs Creek home in January. Investigators say there the girl was sexually
assaulted before being left in the cold at an Upper Darby playground.
Regusters faces 15 charges including kidnapping, rape and
involuntary deviant sexual intercourse. She is being held on $4 million bail.
According to the Philly DA website, Regusters is facing Kidnapping, Rape of A Child, Conspiracy, Aggravated Assault, Unlawful Contact with a Minor, Interference with Custody, Corruption of Minors, Concealing Whereabouts, Possession of an Instrument of Crime (PIC), Simple Assault, REAP, Indecent Assault, Unlawful Restraint, and False Imprisonment charges for kidnapping and assaulting a 5-year-old girl in January, 2013.
UPDATE:
On March 7, 2013, Christina Regusters'
attorney W. Fred Harrison, Jr. argued for a reduction in her $4 million
dollar bail -- the request that was denied. There have been
unconfirmed reports that Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams plans
to convene a grand jury to investigate the abduction. (Source)
