A former child care worker accused of dressing in traditional Muslim garb to abduct a kindergartner from her Philadelphia school was found guilty of sexually assaulting the child after holding her overnight, according to The Associated Press.
After a four-week trial, Christina Regusters, 21, was found guilty of aggravated assault, kidnapping, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and a slew of related offenses after a jury deliberated for two days, the AP reported.
Regusters posed as the victim's mother, who wears Muslim clothing, by dressing in a black headscarf that covered her face before signing the child out for early dismissal in January 2013, according to the AP.
The girl's family has sued the city's school district, alleging that it was negligent in failing to ask for identification at the school, the AP reported.
The victim was found in a playground early the next morning wearing a T-shirt, where police later found Regusters' DNA, the AP reported.
"She is a danger," Erin O'Brien, an assistant Philadelphia district attorney, told KYW-1060 radio, according to the AP. "She really is the monster under the bed."
During the trial, prosecutors detailed Regusters' Internet searches for violent pornography and displayed a broomstick allegedly used to sexually assault the child, the AP reported. A relative also testified that Regusters had also molested her daughter.
The women's lawyer, W. Frederick Harrison Jr., argued that she had rescued the child from an unnamed male in her home, and that was how her DNA came to be found on the T-shirt, according to the AP.
"The DNA was a tremendous obstacle to overcome as well as the Internet searches," Harrison said, the AP reported. "Those things were her undoing."
Regusters had previously turned down a plea deal offering 40 to 80 years in prison, according to the AP. She now faces life in prison. Sentencing is set for Dec. 15.
