The case of an 18-yr-old allegedly gang raped in New York continues to take disturbing turns.

Warning: This item deals with rape and may be triggering for some readers. 

It was the disturbing case that gripped many across the world early in January.

A young woman allegedly gang-raped in a park by five teenagers, one as young as 14 and the astounding claim by the young men that it was consensual after they had come across her having sex with her father.

It has now been revealed by US prosecutors that they believe the young men were in fact telling the truth and the young woman admitted to having sex with her father.

The woman, from Brooklyn in the US has remained unidentified as has her father, though the five teenagers have been named.

The Brooklyn district attorney has now dropped all charges against the five young men saying that their sexual encounter with the woman was ‘consensual’.

Prosecutors say that the woman’s account of the evening was ‘inconsistent’ and that she was ‘unwilling to cooperate with authorities.’

According to reports the woman gave several conflicting accounts of what had occurred in the Brooklyn playground on January 9th.

The initial report was that the woman had been drinking in a park with her father when five teenagers with what was claimed to be a gun gang-raped her.

It was reported at the time that the father, panicking, went in search of help, but was apparently so drunk, he couldn’t explain what was happening to the workers he approached in two local delis.

“He was swaying side to side. He asked me, ‘Lend me your phone.’ I said no,’’ said an employee of Zaida Deli and Grocery to The New York Post.

“He didn’t tell me it was an emergency or ‘I need to call the police’ or of course I would’ve given it to him or just called the police for him.”

The teenagers named as Denzel Murray, 14; Shaquell Cooper, 15; Ethan Phillip, 15; and Onandi Brown, 17 were arrested and charged as an adult with rape, committing a criminal sex act and sex abuse.

They were handed in by their mothers after they saw CCTV on the news of the wanted men.

NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said to the media ”At this juncture, we have no doubt she was raped.”

Two of the boys claimed that when they came across the father and daughter in the park they were already having sex. “Can we have some of that?” one boy reportedly claims he asked the man.

The story then got murkier with the young men claiming the sex they engaged in with the woman was consensual.

Robert K. Boyce, the Police Department’s chief of detectives said that the case was indeed tangled.

He said that police were investigating claims that the woman was having sex with her father when the five suspects encountered them.

Officials said that both eventually admitted to investigators that they had been engaged in sexual relations.

A rape test performed on the woman showed the presence of DNA from two of the five suspects, including one who the woman had repeatedly insisted had not had sexual contact with her, the officials said.

Yesterday Brooklyn district attorney, Ken Thompson, announced that he would ask the court to dismiss the charges also saying that they had learnt more about the young woman’s deeply troubled childhood in foster care.

The woman, who went into foster care at the age of two had reconnected with her father via social media.  Her mother, a drug user, had died and she had moved from foster home to foster home.

“That night, this young woman’s father and the five young men engaged in conduct that was reprehensible and wrong, but because of the lack of reliable evidence, criminal charges simply cannot be sustained,” Mr. Thompson said in a statement.

Mr Thompson said snippets of mobile phone videos suggested the sex between the woman and the young men was consensual.

A lawyer for one of the young men said that he did not disagree with Mr Thompson’s characterisation of his client “I think that is a way, from a policy and social standpoint, to say, ‘Young men should exercise a little bit better judgment in dealing with certain things,’ but what they did didn’t rise to criminality,”

Ken Montgomery said. “I would agree, in a sense, that we live in a country and a world where we have a lot of unhealthy ideas of what appropriate sexual relationships are.”

The New York Times reports that prosecutors are unable to charge the woman’s father with incest because of the young woman’s lack of cooperation.

“The complainant, as well as her father, provided multiple inconsistent accounts to NYPD Detectives and to experienced Special Victims prosecutors about important material facts in this case,” Mr Montgomery said

“The complainant has recanted her allegations of forcible sexual assault and the existence of a gun, and she does not wish to pursue criminal charges against any of the defendants. She also refuses to cooperate with any prosecution against her father, who was engaging in sexual conduct with her.”

He said that he hopes the young woman gets all the support she needs.

“My office, including our victim advocates who have been working with this young woman, stand ready to provide her with any assistance she may need.”

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