A Richmond Hill man was convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl as payment for a drug debt from another man, prosecutors announced Monday.
Albert Premnauth, 24, was found guilty of second-degree rape, second-degree criminal sexual act and endangering the welfare of a child. He is due to return to court on July 18, where he faces up to seven years in prison and will have to register as a sex offender upon his release.
“The defendant, despite the victim’s tears and literally begging not to be raped, was violated by the defendant,” said District Attorney Richard A. Brown. “A jury weighed all the evidence presented at trial and found the defendant guilty. He will now face serious prison time for his actions.”
According to charges, the 14-year-old victim sent a nude video of herself to her 14-year-old female friend as a joke. The friend shared the video with Jacob Marcial, who was 18 years old at the time, who allegedly owed Premnauth money for marijuana.
The victim was then coerced into having sex with Premnauth after Marcial threatened to post the video online.
On Feb. 20, 2016, the victim met with Premnauth at his home and begged him to give her time to pay him the money allegedly owed by the other man, saying that she was only 14 years old. However, Premnauth refused and forced her to have sex with him.
Premnauth then paid the victim $100 cash and gave her a pair of Beats by Dre headphones. She handed both the cash and headphones to Marcial, who sold the headphones to pay off his debt.
“This case tragically demonstrates how dangerous it is for teenagers to take explicit images or videos of themselves and then to send them to others — even those they consider to be their friends,” Brown said. “Once the image is sent, they have lost all control over what happens next with the images. In this instance the 14-year-old victim, as a joke, sent a naked video of herself to her 14-year-old female friend on Snapchat. The video then ended up in the hands of the 18-year-old male friend, who threatened to post it online if the victim did not have sex with the defendant to pay off his debt.”
