Firefighter raped 16-year-old girl in West Virginia firehouse bunk room, feds say
A man who worked as a firefighter and police officer raped a 16-year-old girl in a fire station bunk room, according to federal court documents.
Christopher Osborne, 26, has a history of “egregious abuses of his authority as a law enforcement officer and firefighter,” according to court documents. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Aug. 31, and also must register as a sex offender.
In January 2021, Osborne — who at the time worked for the Marmet Police Department, Charleston Fire Department and Danville Volunteer Fire Department — arranged for a 17-year-old junior firefighter to bring a 16-year-old girl to the Danville volunteer station house “so that he could have sex with her, court documents say.
He then “took her by the arm and led her into a bunk room,” where he raped her, according to documents.
He is accused of using social media and his “influence over the 17-year-old junior firefighter to target and lure” the 16-year-old girl, before ignoring the teen as she repeatedly tried to tell him that she didn’t want to have sex. He also choked the teen and threw her cellphone and a pepper spray canister that she carried on a lanyard across the room when she went to reach for them, court documents say.
Osborne’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment. The police department where he worked, as well as the two fire departments, did not return requests for comment from McClatchy News.
Osborne has a “pattern of coercing and pressuring other teenage girls into sex,” according to court documents, as well as a history of abusing his authority as a firefighter and police officer.
In November 2019, he set fire to a homeless woman’s encampment while working as a police officer, documents say.
“The defendant’s conduct reflects a willingness to use his authority and his position of trust to abuse vulnerable individuals within the Southern District of West Virginia,” court documents say.
In addition to a 14-year prison term, he was also sentenced to five years of supervised release and ordered to register as a sex offender, according to the Department of Justice.
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