A Little Rock man was arrested Wednesday in Maumelle after authorities said he had raped a 6-year-old girl multiple times in 2017 and 2018 causing the child to contract gonorrhea and HIV.
Demarcus George, 24, was in the Pulaski County jail Friday evening in lieu of a $1 million bond facing charges of rape and knowingly exposing another to HIV after U.S. Marshals arrested him Wednesday.
Court documents show a woman took her 6-year-old child to Arkansas Children's Hospital on Feb. 13, 2018, because the child had been experiencing vaginal discharge for several weeks. Doctors later diagnosed the child with HIV and gonorrhea and said the girl must have contracted HIV from sexual contact because she had not been born with it.
Interviews with the child's former baby sitter indicated to police that the child had been exhibiting these symptoms for months, beginning as early as August 2017, the affidavit for George's arrest said.
The child's mother refused to take the child to a doctor because she was afraid the child would be taken from her if something was found to be amiss, the affidavit said.
In June 2018, the child exhibited further symptoms and was diagnosed with chlamydia and syphilis, the report said.
In a court hearing Friday, George pleaded innocent to the charges, according to court records.
NW News on 05/05/2019