{"id":402568,"date":"2026-09-17T15:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T15:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/402568\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T15:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T15:02:14","slug":"florida-man-accused-of-molesting-8-year-old-girl-recording-alleged-abuse-ag-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/402568\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida man accused of molesting 8-year-old girl, recording alleged abuse, AG says"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAKELAND, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier<\/a> announced charges Wednesday against a 34-year-old man accused of molesting and recording an 8-year-old girl, identified as his girlfriend\u2019s daughter.<\/p>\n

Rafiq Osborne McDonald faces two counts of lewd or lascivious molestation of a child younger than 12, promoting a sexual performance by a child and two counts of possessing child sexual abuse material, Uthmeier said during a news conference at the Lakeland Police Department.<\/p>\n

Each molestation count carries a potential life sentence and a 25-year mandatory minimum prison term, according to Uthmeier.<\/p>\n

Authorities allege McDonald abused the child, forced her to perform acts and recorded the abuse. Prosecutors said investigators found a significant volume of video evidence but had not found evidence that it was distributed.<\/p>\n

Uthmeier said the investigation began after someone connected to the family provided a tip. The Apopka Police Department and Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/a> were the lead agencies, with assistance from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement<\/a> and the Office of Statewide Prosecution.<\/p>\n

At this point, authorities have not identified evidence of additional victims, Uthmeier said.<\/p>\n

See also: Sheriff: Woman told deputies she had sex with her son about ‘100 times,’ both charged<\/a><\/p>\n

Statewide Prosecutor Brad McVay said investigators often see offenders gain a caregiver\u2019s trust before abusing a child when they have an opportunity to be alone with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, this is something that we see in a lot of sex abuse cases,\u201d McVay said. \u201cThese individuals are patient.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uthmeier said the state will seek the strongest penalty allowed by law. He said the death penalty was not currently anticipated based on the known evidence, though officials would review any new evidence.<\/p>\n

The attorney general urged parents, caregivers, school employees and others to report suspected abuse. FDLE Tampa Bay Special Agent in Charge Mark Dubina pointed people to secureflorida.org<\/a> for information on recognizing warning signs and talking with children about safe behaviors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAKELAND, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced charges Wednesday against a 34-year-old man accused of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-402568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}