The controversial, Anonymous-leaked video of Steubenville High School athletes mocking a rape victim

The hacker group is out to incriminate teens allegedly involved in the sexual assault of a 16-year-old classmate

The small town of Steubenville, Ohio, is being targeted by Anonymous for allegedly protecting its star football team in the face of a terrible sexual assault.
(Image credit: AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)

On the eastern edge of Ohio, near the Buckeye State's border with West Virginia, sits the football town of Steubenville — a normally quiet community that has faced increasingly intense media scrutiny in recent weeks after word spread that members of a local high school team allegedly gang raped an underage girl while revelers watched and took pictures on their phones.

According to reports, on the night of Saturday, Aug. 11, the 16-year-old victim passed out after getting drunk at an end-of-summer party. Two Steubenville High athletes, identified in court as Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond, are accused of sexually assaulting her repeatedly over the span of several hours. They are scheduled to appear before a judge in juvenile court on Feb. 13. (Neither Mays nor Richmond appears to have made any public comments on the case. The victim, who has not been identified, has reportedly made a full physical recovery from the ordeal.) Last month, The New York Times reported that the unconscious girl may have been dragged to multiple parties over the course of the night, and may have been urinated on.

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Chris Gayomali is the science and technology editor for TheWeek.com. Previously, he was a tech reporter at TIME. His work has also appeared in Men's Journal, Esquire, and The Atlantic, among other places. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.