Football players face life in high school locker-room attack

A file photo shows a person with their hands restrained in cuffs behind their back.

DAMASCUS, Md. - Four Maryland 15-year-olds are out on bail but face life in prison after being charged as adults with first-degree rape in a locker room attack.

WTOP-FM reports Jean Claude Abedi, Kristian Jamal Lee, Will Smith and Caleb Thorpe were released on Monday. A fifth teen is facing lesser second-degree rape charges as a juvenile.

Prosecutors say the Damascus High School students assaulted four 14-year-olds before junior varsity football practice one day in October.

They say the teens restrained the victims, pulled down their pants and raped or attempted to rape them with a broom stick.

Defence attorney Daniel Wright called it "a hazing incident that went to an extreme."

Prosecutor John McCarthy rejected that, saying "these are crimes."