(Jamaica Observer) WASHINGTON, USA – The jailed Jamaican-born man who helped kill 10 people in a bloody rampage in the Washington, DC area in 2002 has accused John Allen Muhammad, the mastermind behind the killings, of sexually abusing him.
Lee Boyd Malvo, 27, dubbed the “D.C. sniper sidekick” made the allegation for the first time during a television programme Thursday.
Malvo, who is serving life imprisonment in a Virginia jail without the possibility of parole, was spared the death sentence in December 2003. Muhammad, 48, was executed by lethal injection in November 2009.
“For the entire period, when I was almost 15 until I got arrested, I was sexually abused by John Muhammad,” said Malvo, who was 17 years old at the time of the murders.
Asked by NBC “Today” show host Matt Lauer why he was divulging the information now after denying it in the past, Malvo responded “I felt a sense of shame, and I just said, ‘that’s just something that I’d never tell anyone.
“And to a certain extent, up until that point, I really couldn’t handle it. The main reason I’m coming forward now is because I am more mature.”
Malvo said he first met Muhammad around 1999 in Antigua, where his mother had moved the family. He said Muhammad took him under his wing.
Malvo also alleged that he was sexually abused before then, first by a baby sitter when he was about five years old and then by some relatives when he was eight or nine.
Police said Malvo and Muhammad began the deadly spree in the Washington area on October 2, 2002, randomly gunning down their victims for about three weeks before they were finally nabbed. They murdered 10 and wounded at least six others, police said.
Malvo admitted that there are other victims who were never identified and that he had told law enforcement authorities about them.
He advised the victims’ families “please do not allow my actions and the actions of Muhammad to hold you hostage and continue to victimize you for the rest of your life.
“Do not give me or him that much power,” he added.
