INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Brock Turner Suspected Of Texting Topless Photo Of Victim To His Friends During The Sexual Assault

By Jennifer Ricketts
Published on: 18:46 PST, Jun 11, 2016

When Brock Turner received a light sentence of six months in jail for three counts of sexual assault, the nation was horrified and angered. Now, even more upsetting news has recently come to light – the ex-Stanford University student might have taken a photograph of his victim’s breast and sent that photo on to his friends around the time of the attack.

Court documents reveal a witness told investigators the day of the assault, he or she saw a person standing over the girl’s body with a phone pointed at her as though he was taking photos or video.

“He saw a female subject lying on the ground behind the dumpster… He also noticed a male subject standing over her with a cell phone. He was holding the cell phone. The cell phone had a bright light pointed in the direction of the female, using either a flashlight app in his phone or its built-in flash.”

The witness also claimed he checked on the victim to see if she was okay and tried to help her.

In the timeline of events on the night of the sexual assault, Brock Turner left the scene for an unspecified amount of time before returning to the victim. Once Turner came back, he was soon caught sexually assaulting the victim by Peter Jonsson and Carl-Fredrik Arndt, two young men who happened to be passing by at the time. They restrained Turner until police arrived.

In the early morning hours the day of the assault after Turner’s arrest, detectives saw a notification that showed up on Turner’s phone reading, “Who’s t** is that” (sic). The message was sent through the GroupMe app by Justin Buck, a fellow member of Stanford’s swim team.

A photo was sent to the group before the message from Buck. The Daily Mail reports detectives obtained a search warrant for Turner’s phone, but were unable to access the photo that had been sent because GroupMe “images are not stored on the phone and can be deleted by a third member in the group.” It is unknown who deleted the image.

Prosecutors wrote in the People’s Sentencing Memorandum that “detectives were unable to locate the text from the ‘Group me’ application or any photos related to the text.” It’s possible one of Turner’s friends deleted the image before police received the search warrant.

Police also said pictures taken on third-party applications are often difficult to trace. Their report indicated the conversation between Turner and his friends through GroupMe seemed to have begun earlier in the night and continued after Turner’s arrest. The timing of the notification, as well as the fact that the victim’s bra had been pulled off one of her breasts, have led police to believe Turner sent a photograph of her breast.

CNN reports prosecutors included a screen shot of the exchange from Turner’s phone in the sentencing memo.

Turner’s texts and photos taken are still being investigated. The witness couldn’t positively identify Turner as the one who was standing over the victim taking photos. There’s also the possibility a different friend of Turner’s could have been sending around photos of a different woman’s breast that night in the group chat.

Brock Turner was sentenced to six months in county jail last week and probation. The ex-Stanford University athlete has also been banned for life by USA Swimming.

CNN will air an hour-long town hall special discussing the Brock Turner sexual assault case on Tuesday night. The Letter and the Law: The Stanford Rape Case Town Hall will air at 9 p.m. and will be co-hosted by CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield and Alisyn Camerota. Sexual assault victims, experts, lawmakers and families of assault victims will make up the audience.

What are your thoughts on the Brock Turner case?

[Image via Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office]

Share this article: Brock Turner Suspected Of Texting Topless Photo Of Victim To His Friends During The Sexual Assault
Brock Turner
More from Inquisitr