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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, May 12, 2007

Girl, 4, describes assault by 'bad man'

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Shane Ngirmidol

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A 4-year-old girl who was raped in the backyard of her Kalihi home Monday night told police she was attacked by a "bad man," according to a police affidavit filed in court.

The girl also told sex crime investigators that her attacker had given her $1, according to the affidavit.

Her accused attacker, Shane Ngirmidol, 31, pleaded not guilty to charges of first- and third-degree sexual assault and burglary in the second degree in District Court yesterday. His lawyer, public defender Okechukwu Amadi, entered the plea on his behalf.

The police affidavit states the girl was playing in the fenced-in backyard of her home on Palama Street around 7 p.m. when she was attacked by a man who climbed over a chain-link fence and lured her into a darkened tool shed on the property.

The girl was being treated at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children the next day when she told sex crime investigators that she was alone with the man in the tool shed and that he had given her $1, although the affidavit does not make it clear at what point. She also said her attacker had dark skin, curly hair and smelled.

SKETCHES DRAWN

A police graphic artist made two composite sketches of the suspect and a convenience store owner told police Tuesday that a man matching the description had just left his store, which is located on the same Palama Street property, the affidavit said.

Just after 5 p.m. Tuesday, officers stopped Ngirmidol alongside Tamashiro Market at Palama and North King streets and asked him to stand in a field line-up, according to the affidavit.

Ngirmidol was arrested after he was identified by another girl who said she saw him on Palama Street around the time of the attack, according to the affidavit.

Ngirmidol, who has no permanent local address, was barefoot when he appeared in court, wearing black athletic shorts and a sleeveless, silver-and-blue, V-neck athletic shirt. He was shackled at the ankles and wrists when he was escorted into the courtroom.

Bail was set at $50,000 for the more serious charges and $500 for an unrelated case that was not disclosed in court.

BURGLARY CHARGE

A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Tuesday. The burglary charge stems from the accusation that Ngirmidol unlawfully entered a storage shed where the girl allegedly was sexually assaulted.

The number of minors who have been victims of sexual assault was not available, said Evie Yanagida, clinical program manager for The Sex Abuse Treatment Center, a program of Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children where the girl was treated.

That's because no one has done a complete study of sexual assaults against minors on O'ahu, she said.

Various agencies, institutions and private practitioners regularly treat victims, she said.

The Sex Abuse Treatment Center typically treats about 650 sex-abuse victims each year through crisis intervention, counseling and medical-legal services.

Some 57 percent to 58 percent of victims are below the age of 17 when they are attacked, Yanagida said. Twenty-five percent are below the age of 10, she said.

Last year, the Sex Abuse Treatment Center saw victims as young as 18 months and as old as 96. Eighty-six percent of the victims were female.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.