A little girl's heartbreaking note to Jesus asking for help after enduring two years of sexual abuse was finally discovered tucked away in a Bible at the child's Covington, Ky., elementary school — and has led to the conviction of her 37-year-old abuser.
The letter was found by a school worker in October 2013, allowing police to question the girl, who told stunned investigators the abuse began when she was 6 and lasted for two years,
WLWT-TV reports.
"It makes you cry… It’s hard not to, as a human," Kenton County's assistant Commonwealth Attorney Kate Bennett told WLWT-TV. "Your instinct is to be compassionate and to take care of children."
“Every case is hard, but when a child comes so honestly to ask help from God, it’s a tough thing to swallow," she added.
The child told police Eric Rivera, 37, showed her pornographic magazines and cell phone pictures — and told investigators exactly where they'd find the evidence, the station reports.
Rivera last month pleaded guilty to sodomy, sexual abuse and distribution of obscene matter to a minor, and faces up to 25 years in prison, the
Cincinnati Enquirer reports.
He'll be sentenced July 13.
"Although 25 years doesn't seem like enough for the defendant to serve based on the heinous and unspeakable crime he committed, it saves the child victim from being further traumatized by reliving her nightmare of abuse," Bennett said in a statement.
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