Fort Hood-based soldier on the run after being charged with rape

[unhappycamper]

Fort Hood-based soldier on the run after being charged with rape
By Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, February 15, 2008

ARLINGTON, Va. — Military and civilian law enforcement authorities are on a major manhunt for an active-duty soldier and recent Iraq veteran who has been charged with the alleged rape of a child.

Spc. Justin Ray Sparlin, 28, a soldier stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, is thought to be on the run somewhere outside the United States, according to Ottawa (Ill.) Police Detective Sgt. Dave Gualandri.

Sparlin was charged Feb. 7 with “predatory criminal sexual assault in the alleged rape of a child under the age of 13,” Gualandri said in a Wednesday telephone interview with Stripes.

Gualandri asked that the precise age of the child not be published, “to protect the victim as much as possible.”

Like most newspapers, Stripes does not reveal identities of alleged or actual victims of sexual assault.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52507