RALEIGH, N.C. (WITN/Gray News) – A North Carolina man has been convicted of sex crimes involving a young girl at Camp Lejeune.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, a federal jury convicted 41-year-old David Mayes of aggravated sexual abuse of a child.
Federal officials say Mayes raped a nonverbal 9-year-old child with autism while he was visiting her family at the Marine Corps base.
The victim’s mother came home early and found her daughter’s door closed. Alarmed, she opened the door and caught him in the act, officials said.
“This monster preyed on the most vulnerable 9-year-old imaginable,” U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle said. “He exploited his relationship with the family to violate this defenseless, innocent child in the most inhuman ways imaginable.”
Prosecutors said they found Mayes’s fingerprints on a tub of petroleum jelly that was in her room, and the victim’s DNA on him.
The 41-year-old faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years in federal prison. He could also face a life sentence, officials noted.
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