A 13-year-old girl was taken to North Broward Medical Center in Pompano Beach, Florida on Friday for abdominal pain. Doctors later discovered she was 14 weeks pregnant.
What We Know:
- The girl identified the father as 70-year-old Renaud Jerome, who brought her to the hospital, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. She told investigators that he “would touch and have sex with her.”
- Hospital staff immediately contacted the police and the Florida Department of Children and Families.
- The police report does not disclose the girl’s relationship to Jerome, but the two lived in the same home and he sometimes took care of her. In the report, Jerome stated that “within the last couple of months he has had consensual vaginal intercourse with [the girl] three times, and [she] was interested in him more than he was interested in her and never forced her to do anything.”
- The age of consent in Florida is 18. People between the ages of 16 and 17 can give consent to a sexual partner up to the age of 23.
- Jerome admitted that the unborn child was his and is charged with three counts of sexual activity with a child and one count of impregnating a child.
Jerome is being held at the Palm Beach County Jail with no bond. A judge has also ordered that he has no contact with the girl or anyone else under the age of 18.
