Russian authorities have pledged to harshly prosecute a group of teenagers accused of getting a 15-year-old girl drunk at a party, stripping her naked, raping her, and posting multiple photographs of the abuse online, news reports said.
Governor Andrei Turchak, of northwest Russia's Pskov region, called the case a "horrible crime that defies any explanation from the point of view of human morality," the LifeNews tabloid reported Tuesday.
The girl was hospitalized with genital injuries, inflicted by "rape with extraneous objects, presumably a pen," LifeNews reported, citing an unidentified health worker.
The 15-year-old girl, identified as Viktoria E., arrived with a 13-year-old female friend at a party held by four teenage boys, who allegedly got her drunk on vodka, possibly spiked with drugs, which made her pass out, before allegedly abusing her, LifeNews reported.
Photographs and videos of the abuse were posted online by the perpetrators, and the consequent bullying resulted in the victim dropping out of school, and the girl's parents reported the incident to the Investigative Committee.
The suspects, all of whom come from wealthy families, are under criminal investigation in a sexual abuse case, Turchak was quoted as saying by LifeNews.
Russia's children's rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov said the teenage perpetrators would be sent to juvenile detention centers, the Ekho Moskvy radio reported Tuesday.
