Girl reports three years worth of sexual abuse
Christopher Quirk – Staff Writer
cq****@gi************.com
GILROY
Police put an end to three years of child molestation with the arrest of a 39-year-old Marina man.
The 11-year-old female relative that Noe Casas Prieto, 39, sexually abused came forward Thursday to report about 10 incidents that took place since she was 8 years old. The sometimes-violent incidents landed the Marina man with charges that could result in him spending the rest of his life in prison.
After receiving a report from the victim, police arrested Prieto at Jack in the Box, 7110 Camino Arroyo, at 4:03 p.m. without incident. He was arrested on suspicion of two counts of sodomy with a child younger than 14 – each of which carries a sentence of up to eight years in jail – continuing sexual abuse, child molestation and sexual assault of a child younger than 14 – which carries a sentence of 15 years to life.
Prieto started molesting the victim when he lived with her, police said. Though he moved to Marina, he continued to molest her, with the last incident occurring in June, police said. During this encounter, Prieto raped her while he was babysitting the victim while her mother was in the hospital giving birth.
The fact that the victim did not report the incidents until now does not discredit her report, said Lisa DeSilva, director of development for Community Solutions, a Morgan-Hill nonprofit that supports survivors of sexual assault and educates people on violence prevention.
“Generally, children do keep the secret for various reasons,” she said.
Reasons children keep quiet include a misplaced sense of guilt, an aversion to upsetting family members or fear of retribution, DeSilva said.
In addition, Latino victims could feel greater pressure than their white counterparts because a traditional emphasis on family bonds and respecting elders makes drumming up the courage to accuse somebody of molestation all the harder.
“It is extremely common – heartbreakingly frequent – that children do not tell,” she said.
