By SHARON MONTAGUE

Salina Journal

The 8-year-old girl awoke her mother about 6 a.m. June 13, saying she had an "accident" in her panties.

But when her mother took her to the bathroom of the house in which they were staying and turned on the light, she saw blood dribbling down the little girl's leg and onto the floor.

"I had no idea what had happened," the mother said Friday, testifying in Saline County District Court. "She wasn't saying anything about what had happened."

The woman took her child to Salina Regional Health Center. An examination revealed tears, bruising, redness and small, dark blood clots in the girl's vaginal area, according to Katie Fast, a nurse who specializes in sexual assault cases. One tear was long and deep enough -- nearly an inch deep and a little more than an inch long -- that the girl was put under anesthesia so it could be sutured by Dr. Joel Parriott, an obstetrician.

That day, Fast said, the young victim wouldn't discuss what happened to her.

"When I'd ask her what happened, she looked down and just stopped responding to me," Fast said.

But in court Friday, the girl, clutching a stuffed brown bunny with floppy ears, testified that Christopher Hoffman, 16, took her to the basement of his family's home, ordered her to take off her clothes and sexually assaulted her on the concrete floor.

After hearing from the girl and other witnesses, District Magistrate Judge Mary Thrower ordered that Hoffman stand trial as an adult on charges of rape and attempted aggravated sodomy.

Hoffman was to be moved from the Saline County Juvenile Detention Center to the Saline County Jail, with bond set at $50,000.

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