WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Sex Abuse Case Reveals Flaw in Vt. Law
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Bennington, Vermont - July 8, 2009
A county prosecutor says a case of extreme sex abuse is revealing a major short-coming in Vermont laws.
The case involves 37-year-old Robert Pratt. He was charged Tuesday with the repeated abuse of a boy over a six year period. Bennington County Prosecutor Erica Marthage says many of the allegations amount to torture, but she says there are no laws on the books to adequately reflect the nature of the crimes.
"There's a specific statute that talks about doing this very thing to a vulnerable adult: keeping them without food and water, keeping them restrained, their movement restricted, and repeatedly physically abusing them or torturing them and we don't have that equivalent for doing that to a kid," Marthage said.
Pratt is charged with aggravated sexual assault on a child, domestic assault with a firearm and kidnapping.
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