ORANGE COUNTY -- A local teen made national headlines Thursday after posting her emotional story about being raped on YouTube.
"I had to turn to this -- to make a video, to post it on the Internet -- for somebody to hear me and help me, because I was raped by a 23-year-old man, and no one wants to help me," said Crystal, 16, of Orange County. Watch the full video on YouTube.
Crystal made the video after the charges against her alleged attacker, Casey Mundling, were dropped, because the judge hearing the case ruled the two had consensual sex.
In an interview with CNN, Crystal said that was not what happened, and her entire relationship with Mundling was forced. Watch the full report.
"God, the day they dropped my charges, I thought I was going to die," Crystal said. "I had an emotional breakdown. I cried for hours."
According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, more and more alleged sex crime victims whose cases never made it to court were seeking justice online, but this was the first time a teenager had posted a video.
While research showed a stunning one in four girls under 18 reports being sexually abused, Trudy Novicki, a former prosecutor who runs a center for sexually abused children in Miami, said cases rarely go to trial, leaving many young girls feeling let down by the courts.
"I think this is almost so obvious, it's laughable. It's a cry for help." Novicki said after watching Crystal's video. "She's talking to a camera, and that's all she has to help her? That's a pretty sad situation."
"The only thing she can envision help being is to put who she sees as the bad man in jail. There are a lot of other alternatives," Novicki said. "There is a whole system that has got to grab these children."
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