NEW HAMPSHIRE
Yahoo! News
Jason Sickles
National Reporter
•August 30, 2016
The teenage victim in a high-profile prep school rape case revealed her identity on national TV Tuesday morning, saying she’s “not afraid or ashamed anymore.”
Chessy Prout, a former student at the prestigious St. Paul’s School in Concord, N.H., told NBC’s “Today” that she’s coming forward to embolden all victims of sexual assault.
“I want other people to feel empowered and just strong enough to be able to say, ‘I have the right to my body. I have the right to say no,’” said Prout, whose name was previously withheld because of the nature of the crime. “I just can’t imagine how scary it is for other people to have to do this alone, and I don’t want anybody else to be alone anymore.”
Owen Labrie, now 20, was accused of raping Prout at the historic co-ed school in May 2014. His arrest and conviction exposed a tradition at the $55,290-a-year boarding school called “senior salute,” in which some graduating boys allegedly kept score of how many younger students they had sex with.
The trial, which took place a year ago, was the focus of national media attention.
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