6 ex-staffers charged with sex crimes against numerous children at New Hampshire youth detention center
(The AEGIS Alliance) – 6 ex-staff members who worked at a New Hampshire youth detention facility are charged with sexually abusing 11 kids in a dreadful experience that went on for a decade, according to officials on Wednesday.
The affirmed criminal offenses occurred between 1994 and 2005 while the men worked at the state-operated Manchester Sununu Youth Services Center, previously named the youth Development Center. The apprehensions come almost 2 years after 2 of the male suspects had been charged with raping a teenage young boy over 80 times in the 1990s, an accusation that was, later on, decreased as an initiative to broaden the investigation.
Both males, Massachusetts locals Jeffrey Buskey, as well as Stephen Murphy, currently are facing several counts of rape. 54-year-old Buskey has been charged with 5 counts of aggravated illicit sex assault that included 4 youngsters between 1996 and 1999. 51-year-old Murphy faces the exact same charges for purportedly abusing 3 kids between 1997 and 1999.
One of the brand-new suspects jailed recently this week is age 56 James Woodlock, who’s charged with continuously beating a young boy and also holding the child down while coworkers raped him. The Manchester local quit his job right after the accused occurrence and worked alongside kids for almost 20 years, working as a juvenile probation officer and a parole officer. Woodlock had been on leave since 2017. He was terminated from his job following his apprehension on Wednesday, the state Department of Health and Human Services revealed.
“The alleged actions that occurred several decades ago at the former Youth Development Center are horrific,” department representative, Jake Leon informed The Associated Press.
Some of the suspects were additionally named in a lawsuit submitted in 2020 declaring that 150 staff members at the center physically or sexually abused greater than 200 young boys and girls from 1963 to 2018. The civil lawsuit is ongoing, with plaintiffs asserting the kids were gang-raped by counselors, beaten while they were raped, locked into solitary holding cells for months at a time, and were also forcefully told to sign up for “fight clubs” to compete for their food.
“My clients are thrilled that the state has taken the important next step in holding these men criminally responsible for the unspeakable crimes they have committed,” lawyer Rus Rilee stated. “We have faith that this is just the beginning of the arrests and indictments of not only all of the perpetrators but also all of those that allowed it to happen.”
The other 3 male suspects jailed earlier this week are New Hampshire locals age 65 Lucien Poulette, age 66 Bradley Asbury, and age 79 Frank Davis. Poulette faces the most charges with 12 counts of felony sexual assault, 11 counts of worsened illicit sexual assault, and 10 counts of sexual assault, for the claimed abuse of 7 child victims between 1994 and 2005.
Asbury is implicated for being an accomplice to the raping of a youngster between 1997 and 1998. Davis also faces 6 counts of sexual assault that include 2 victims between 1996 and 1997.
Governor Chris Sununu stated the case isn’t done yet, which authorities will certainly continue to investigate such “horrific allegations.”
“When my Administration launched this investigation two years ago, we pledged to leave no stone unturned to ensure justice was served,” Sununu stated in a press release. “Today’s arrests make clear that this Administration is committed to holding these perpetrators accountable for their detestable actions.”
The detention facility is named after the governor’s father, the previous New Hampshire Governor John H. Sununu.
Kyle James Lee – The AEGIS Alliance – This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
