A 38-year-old North Austin man, Edward Radford, is being accused of duct taping and sexually assaulting a 7-year-old boy after kidnapping him from a bounce house during a block party, according to the Chicago Tribune .
At around 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 4, a young boy — whose name has not been released — was sitting inside of an inflatable bounce house at a Kilbourn Park neighborhood block party, playing with his iPad when he was approached by Radford.
The man reportedly reached out his hand and told the child that if he went with him, he would be able to make him “smarter.” When the child agreed, Radford took the child’s hand and led him to a home office in the 3300 block of North Kilpatrick Avenue.
While inside, the Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Katherine Schoon stated that Radford removed some of the boy’s clothing and began playing pornography on the child’s iPad.
Just shortly after Radford allegedly restrained the child using duct tape, he began sexually assaulting the boy.
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The assault came to an end when a man — whose name has not been released — walked in on the act and immediately punched Radford before he “unbound the boy, took him back to the bouncy house and told him not to tell anyone.”
It was alleged that the crime went unreported until September 16 when the child’s mother discovered the pornographic video on his iPad and questioned the boy, who continued to keep quiet about the sexual assault.
When the boy finally revealed what happened during the block party, his parents did not immediately report the incident to the police. They began an investigation on their own and were able to find the home where the assault took place, using a “Facebook page with a community group.”
After uncovering the suspect’s name, as well as the name of the witness who stopped the assault, the father of the child reported the incident to police.
The father of child later stated that although he did not suspect that his child had been sexually assaulted, he does recall seeing duct tape residue on the boy’s arm on the night of the block party, which is when Radford reportedly took the child from the bounce house.
Austin police arrested Radford Wednesday on charges of “predatory criminal sexual assault, aggravated kidnapping, and unlawful restraint.”
It was not immediately made clear if the witness will “face any criminal charges for instructing the boy not to tell anyone.”
However, many were outraged after learning the North Austin man allegedly kidnapped and sexually assaulted a 7-year-old boy, calling Radford “perverted” and “nasty.”
In a Facebook post, Lakera Pinckney wrote: “Hopefully this nasty b***h get sexually assaulted in jail” while another social media user wrote, “Let the inmates return the favor. Can these ingrates just be put to death?”
Leslie Ann Edmond on Facebook wrote “These predators are lucky I have kids of my own to take care of. I would be a bandit taking them out of their pathetic disgusting life.”
“These monsters are the worst in this world. This system is f***** up not to have the hardest laws on these worthless pieces of s***.
Radford attended a court hearing Saturday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, where he remained silent and only seen “shaking his head and fidgeting with a dusty black White Sox cap behind his back.”
Judge Donald Panarese Jr. ordered Radford to be held at the county jail with a $500,000 bond. He was also ordered to refrain from “having contact with anyone younger than 18 and barred him from contacting the child in the case.”
If Radford is found guilty of the crime, he could face between six and 60 years in prison.
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