10-year-old raped in Harlem after meeting man online, NYPD releases photos of suspect

The New York Police Department released photographs of a man in connection to an alleged rape of a 10-year-old girl that met the predator on an online app.

Police said the man met with the girl in person near Third Avenue and East 122nd Street in East Harlem at around 9 p.m. on Jan. 6.

He allegedly raped the girl and then fled on foot.

Paramedics transported the girl to be evaluated at a hospital and receive treatment. She was said to be in stable condition.

The photographs released showed a man in a Nautica hooded sweatshirt and gray sweatpants. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the NYPD, which said the investigation is ongoing and no arrests have been made.

Police did not disclose which online app the child used, but experts have issued warnings to parents to monitor their children's online activity.

In one heinous case, Matthew Christian Locher admitted to searching for victims online who were suffering from mental problems, including suicidal ideation, depression, and anorexia.

“Locher groomed his victims to engage in self-mutilation and instructed a victim struggling with an eating disorder to starve herself, ordering her to film herself cutting her body when she disobeyed him,” read a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors said the child predator ordered one of his underage victims to set her Ohio home on fire in an attempt to kill her parents so that she could run away to California and become his sex slave.

Locher was sentenced to 27 years in federal prison.

While there have been 44 incidents of rape reported to the NYPD so far this year, that number is down from 71 incidents that were reported during the same period last year.

Here's a news video about the incident:

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