Woman charged with livestreaming alleged rape of teen friend

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - An 18-year-old woman who used a social media app to livestream the alleged rape of her 17-year-old friend was indicted along with another man by a grand jury on several charges including rape and kidnapping, an Ohio prosecutor said Wednesday.

The case came to light when authorities were contacted after an out-of-state friend of the accused woman saw the images, Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien said.

Marina Lonina and co-defendant Raymond Gates, 29, were charged with rape, kidnapping, sexual battery and pandering sexually-oriented matter involving a minor. The alleged rape involved intercourse by force, according to Wednesday's indictment, which did not mention her age as a factor.

Lonina was also charged with illegal use of a minor in a nudity-oriented material or performance, related to the alleged use of the social media livestreaming app Periscope.

Periscope, an app for smartphones, uses a video function to allow users to stream events live.

O'Brien said Lonina and the victim were socializing with Gates at a home in Columbus on Feb. 27 when Gates raped the 17-year-old girl. Lonina used the Periscope app to livestream the assault, O'Brien said.

Lonina had also taken a picture of the girl in the nude the night before at Lonina's house, O'Brien said.

Gates is scheduled for arraignment Friday. Court records don't list attorneys for either defendant to respond to the charges. They each face up to 40 years in prison, if convicted.

In February, a Florida woman received a six-month license suspension and 150 hours of community service after she streamed live video of herself driving drunk last year.

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Andrew Welsh-Huggins can be reached on Twitter at https://twitter.com/awhcolumbus. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/andrew-welsh-huggins