A 31-year-old married teacher, accused of sexually abusing minor boys, allegedly forced young victims – some as young as 13 – to wear horror movie-style masks while subjecting them to group sex, court documents have revealed.
Brittany Fortinberry, a former math teacher at two Morgan County schools in Indiana, is now facing multiple charges for raping and sexually assaulting at least 10 minors.
One of the victims told police that Fortinberry had spent $600 (almost Rs 52,000) on him and a group of boys. She allegedly forced them to wear masks that resembled those in the horror film series Scream and engage in sexual acts at her home. She also offered the boys between $100-$800 (Rs 8,600-Rs 69,000) in exchange for explicit photos of their genitals.
According to court documents obtained by TV station WTHR, Fortinberry allegedly provided drugs to the teens and forced them to have sex. In one instance, she reportedly drugged a victim multiple times before assaulting him.
The former teacher is also accused of threatening to take her own life if any of the victims reported the abuse. While many guardians remained unaware of the abuse until a Department of Child Services investigation, one parent claimed that Fortinberry’s husband was complicit. According to court documents, the husband allegedly threatened to “slaughter” a teen in front of Fortinberry if he reported the abuse.
The court documents show that Fortinberry used Snapchat and the encrypted messaging app Session to send nude and explicit images to her victims.
A victim recounted that she would wait for her children to fall asleep before initiating sexual contact with the boys. Another claimed she assaulted him after asking him to babysit her kids. Another teen alleged that when the boys resisted her advances, she would rape them, telling them to “just let it happen.”
In an earlier case, Fortinberry was accused of abusing several students but attempted to blame her behaviour on her recent 68 kg weight loss. On Tuesday, prosecutors filed additional charges, including counts for molestation of a minor, dissemination of harmful material, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and sexual misconduct.
These new charges come in addition to those filed in February, which included three counts of sexual misconduct and one count each of dissemination.
Prosecutors have also moved to increase Fortinberry’s bond from $20,000 (approximately Rs 17.3 lakh) to $150,000 (approximately Rs 1.3 crore), as per The NY Post.