A 6-year-old girl fled an apartment wearing leg shackles after her friend's father lured her with a promise to show her some pet gerbils, then bound her with tape and chains, injected her with an unknown substance and tried to rape her, authorities said Monday.
Justin Shine, 26, was charged with kidnapping, attempted rape, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon — a hypodermic needle — and resisting arrest.
At his arraignment Monday in Hingham District Court, a prosecutor described in chilling detail what happened after the girl went out to ride her bike in front of her Hanover apartment Saturday.
Shine was ordered held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing Wednesday.
Assistant District Attorney Sharon Donatelle said the girl told police that Shine — who lived in the same apartment building — saw her outside and yelled out his window, inviting her to see some gerbils. The girl knew Shine as the father of a little boy she often played with in the apartment complex.
Once inside, Shine showed the girl the family's gerbils, but then bound her hands with tape, put tape over her mouth, wrapped her arms with a "fishnet-type material," and shackled her ankles with a chain , Donatelle said.
The girl told police that Shine injected her in the hip with a syringe and that she felt "somewhat sleepy" afterward. Donatelle said the syringe is being tested to find out what was in it.
The girl said that after she heard knocking on doors, Shine got a knife and cut the tape off her hands. She said she was crying and Shine told her to "shut up."
"He also told her that she was not going to die today — that he was," Donatelle said. At some point, she said, he let her leave.
'The man took me'
The girl fled the apartment as police were going door-to-door looking for her. A man at the complex found her and carried her to police. Her feet were still shackled together and her arms and legs had blood on them. Police later determined that the blood on the girl was Shine's blood.
"She was very upset and crying," Officer David Zemotel wrote in a police report.
"I asked her what had happened and she stated, 'The man took me.'"
The girl then showed police Shine's apartment, Donatelle said.
Police said they arrested Shine after finding him in a bedroom, covered with blood. He had an open wound on his left wrist that was bleeding.
They found the girl's pink bicycle and Barbie bike helmet in his apartment.
Donatelle said that while Shine was being treated at the hospital, he told a state trooper that he had lured the girl into his apartment, bound her, and admitted "he had plans to engage in some sexual activity," but had "second thoughts."
'Long road' ahead
He said he had injected himself with cocaine, but did not admit injecting the girl with anything. He told the trooper it may have been by accident, Donatelle said.
Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz said the girl was taken to the hospital afterward, but has been released.
"She escaped, and we hope she's going to be OK, but I'm sure it's going to be a long road for her," Cruz said.
The girl's mother told police she let her daughter ride her bike outside while she put her son down for a nap. When she didn't hear her outside about 20 minutes later, she went outside to look for her, then called police.
Shine looked down and did not speak during his arraignment, except to accept the judge's offer for a court-appointed attorney. Not guilty pleas were entered on his behalf.