Media

Deputies Catch Alleged Rapist

Release Date: June 7, 2006

Shelby County Sheriff’s Deputies have arrested a man who they believe raped two East Shelby County teenaged girls early Tuesday morning.

A 12-year-old girl told Deputies she invited the 24-year-old man to her home in a neighborhood near Whitten Road and Interstate 40.

A 16-year-old friend was also at the girl’s house with her for a sleep-over when the man arrived just before midnight on Monday.

The 12-year-old said she let the man into her home through a bedroom window of the one-story house.  As the man and two young girls watched movies in a bedroom, the girls said the man fondled and then raped them.

The younger girl told Sheriff’s Detectives said she had talked with the man several times by phone during the last year after a friend introduced them. The friend said she had met the man on an internet chat room called www.4teen.com.

After the raping the girls and leaving the house, the girls called an out of town friend to report what happened to them.

Although the 12-year-old girl’s mother was at home at the time of the rapes, she said she was asleep and was not aware the man had entered the home.

Deputies have charged David Patterson, 24, of Memphis, with one count of Statutory Rape, one count of Rape of a Child, and one count of Aggravated Burglary.

Deputies are continuing the investigation to see if Patterson might be linked to any other incidents with young girls who used the internet site www.4teen.com.