Two Mepham HS football players accused of sexually abusing three junior varsity players at a summer training camp tearfully apologized to their victims during a closed-door hearing yesterday, sources said.
The emotionally charged apologies were made in Wayne County Court in Honesdale, Pa. after the Bellmore, L.I. teammates – a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old – had pleaded guilty to the most serious of the charges against them, sources said.
The two were accused of sodomizing the younger JV players with broomsticks, pine cones and golf balls during a vicious hazing ritual at the training camp in Preston Park, Pa., last August.
The 17-year-old confessed to three counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse; the 16-year-old confessed to the same three counts as well as three others, sources said.
The two were led out of the courthouse a half-hour apart, both wearing handcuffs and a waist shackle. Officials said they were being taken to an undisclosed juvenile facility where they will spend the next 45 to 60 days being evaluated to determine what rehabilitation is necessary.
When they make their next court appearance before Wayne County President Judge Robert Conway, they could be put on probation or sent to a secure residential facility, a halfway house, or a wilderness boot camp, according to prosecutor Mark Zimmer.
A third member of the Mepham varsity team, who was 15 at the time of the attack, confessed to one count of aggravated assault at an earlier court appearance and implicated the others. He is due back in court within the next two months to learn his punishment.
The aunt of one of the 13-year-old victims sobbed hysterically on the courthouse steps after the first of the two suspects left the building.
Blasting Pennsylvania for prosecuting the two as juveniles, she said, “These are not children, these are vicious savages.
“My nephew and the other victims are going to have a lifetime sentence. They’ll always be looking over their shoulders.”