Daycare worker who kidnapped, sexually assaulted 5-year-old girl says shes ‘not a monster’
Daycare worker who kidnapped, sexually assaulted 5-year-old girl says shes ‘not a monster’
A former daycare worker convicted of abducting a five-year-old girl from her Philadelphia kindergarten classroom and sexually assaulting her has been sentenced to 40 years to life in prison.
Prosecutors believe 22-year-old Christina Regusters donned a Muslim dress and veil to impersonate the girl’s mother and take her from the public school classroom in January 2013.
Regusters apologized on Monday but insisted she was not a ‘monster.’
She claimed her ‘only’ role was taking the child from unnamed people and leaving her half-naked at a playground.
‘I’m asking for your forgiveness,’ Regusters said. ‘I am sorry. Although you may not take it, I apologize.’
However, the girl’s mother said an apology was not enough as her daughter will be forced to live with the horrible memories of the event.
‘She’s always going to have that space where there is a gray area that no one can shine a light on,’ the mother told the court. ‘No one can explain why anyone would do that to a small child.’
The child also spoke, telling the judge: ‘I think what she did to me was wrong, and I think she shouldn’t do it to anyone else.’
Her words caused several people in the court to cry.
Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart called the crime ‘a horror show’, reported the Philadelphia Inquirer. ‘This,’ the judge added, ‘is a terrible case.’
A jury found Regusters guilty last September of kidnapping the girl at 8.50am from Bryant School in West Philadelphia after disguising herself in Muslim garb.
Regusters blindfolded the girl, stuffed her in a laundry bag, and sexually abusing her with a sharp object, the court heard. The young victim was held captive for 19 hours in total.
She was discovered the next day, about 4:40am, after a man walking by heard her screams from a playground.
She suffered devastating injuries and needed a colostomy for six months, but she has now recovered physically. She testified briefly during the trial.
Before the horrific attack, Regusters had moved in with an aunt in Philadelphia after her father went to prison in Maryland for assaulting her and a sister.
She had worked at a daycare program the girl attended after school but had been suspended and was home the day of the abduction.
School officials did not realize the girl was missing for six hours – until dismissal time.
The victim’s family has since sued the Philadelphia School District.
Regusters maintained her innocence during the trial, saying others were involved in the crime.
But the prosecutor, Erin O’Brien, said after the sentencing that ‘the evidence pointed to her and her alone’.
A court-ordered evaluation found Regusters had no mental-health ailments, according to the Inquirer. If she is ever released, she faces up to 20 years’ probation as a registered sex offender.
