Man arrested in sex assault of girl, 11
Suspect allegedly fled as victim’s mother appeared
Editor’s note: This story contains descriptions of child sexual abuse that readers may find disturbing.
A man is accused of kidnapping his 11-year-old neighbor and sexually assaulting her in a van parked outside her home in Lake Worth Beach last week. Deputies say the man stopped the assault only after the child’s mother appeared beside the van and hit it with her hand, demanding to know what was going on inside.
Investigators say Marvin Perez Lopez, 20, fled from the vehicle. The child exited after him, her legs bloodied and bare. Her mother brought the girl inside and bagged her clothes before walking back out to confront Lopez. Neither the child nor her mother are identified in public records.
According to the arrest report, Lopez told the mother he was sorry for what he’d done and asked her to forgive him. She said she declined to and called the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office instead.
The child, a sixth-grader who told the responding deputies that she enjoys math and art classes, said she was playing outside between 8 and 9 p.m. on Thursday when Lopez grabbed her hand and told her to get inside of a “big, dirty van.” She did.
“It scared her,” a deputy wrote later.
“He touched her and she didn’t like it.”
She said she’d known Lopez since he moved from Guatemala into the apartment complex last year. Once inside the vehicle, the girl said Lopez kissed her and tried to take her clothes off. She said she pushed him away and got out of the van, only to be grabbed again and pulled back inside.
The girl said Lopez continued to kiss her despite her demands to stop. She pointed to a drawing of a gingerbread