Thanks to the power of social media, it seems that a man from Marblehead, Ohio has been arrested on charges of rape after a video of the assault was uploaded onto Snapchat by the victim. According to a report from the Toledo Blade, police have arrested 77-year old James Allen after they reviewed evidence from the Snapchat post.
The report claims that the police arrived at 1AM for a welfare check on a 20-year old woman. They interviewed both the woman and Allen and found that there were no problems. However at 3:45AM, a resident all the way in Texas alerted police claiming that he saw a video on Snapchat which showed a woman being sexually assaulted, and after reviewing the video, the man identified in the video was none other than Allen.
While it is unclear when the sexual assault took place, Ottawa County Prosecutor James VanEerten said that it appears to have taken place between the two calls. He is also unclear why the video was recorded and uploaded, but perhaps it could have been done so as to generate evidence and to keep a record, which presumably will come in handy during Allen’s trial.
He also added, “It’s obviously horrific, but at least it allowed us to put a stop to the situation and make a quick arrest in this case.” He is also urging those who have received the video to delete it. The 20-year old victim has been evaluated at Firelands Regional Medical Center, while Allen is incarcerated in the county jail with a bond set at $1 million.