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Bancroft resident is charged with raping autistic boy, 17

An 18-year-old has confessed to the June 11 attack in Haddonfield, authorities say.

By Sam Wood
August 31, 2006
Inquirer Staff Writer

A teenage resident at Bancroft NeuroHealth in Haddonfield has been arrested and charged with raping an autistic boy at the facility.

Benny Ward, 18, was taken into custody Monday at the home of his relatives in Atlantic County.

Ward made a taped confession to police in which he admitted to raping the mute 17-year-old in June, according to a statement of probable cause attached to the arrest warrant. DNA evidence also linked Ward to the crime, the statement says.

Ward was being held last night in a special unit at the Camden County jail on $150,000 bail, said Bill Shralow, spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.

Ward and the 17-year-old lived in separate rooms on the same floor at Bancroft, a school for people with developmental disabilities or brain injuries.

Investigators believe that on June 11, Ward entered the 17-year-old's room and sexually assaulted him, Shralow said.

About 11:30 p.m., the 17-year-old left his room to approach Bancroft staff. A nurse spotted a deep scratch, several inches long, on the boy's back, Shralow said.

Staff members escorted the boy back to his room, where they found additional signs of an assault. A Bancroft supervisor called Haddonfield police "right away," Shralow said.

"Bancroft does not admit individuals who are sexual predators," Liz Thomas, spokeswoman for Bancroft NeuroHealth, said yesterday. "The safety of all the people in our care, as well as our staff and members of the community, is our greatest concern, every day."

The assault is not the first violent episode at the facility to attract the attention of county authorities. In May 2004, Bancroft resident Thomas Summa, 19, was charged with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy. Summa was transferred to an institution in Connecticut, and in January 2005 pleaded guilty to aggravated assault on the boy.

In 2001, a 19-year-old woman was charged with aggravated assault after she stabbed a 16-year-old fellow patient in the abdomen with a kitchen knife. Charges were dropped after a series of psychological tests found the woman would never be ruled competent enough to stand trial.

Bancroft's 20-acre Haddonfield campus, at Kings Highway and Hopkins Lane, serves about 360 children and teenagers.

Founded in 1883, the school has recently expressed interest in selling the Haddonfield property and moving to a new location.

Contact staff writer Sam Wood at 856-779-3838 or samwood@phillynews.com.

 

 

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