DATE: Wednesday, February 26, 1997          TAG: 9702260487

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: STAFF REPORT 

DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY                    LENGTH:   26 lines

WEEKSVILLE WOMAN FACES STATUTORY RAPE CHARGE

A 39-year-old woman has been charged with statutory rape of a 13-year-old boy who lived nearby in a Weeksville neighborhood.

Lorraine Marie Harper of Weeksville is being held under $50,000 bond at the Albemarle District Jail.

Pasquotank County Sheriff Randy Cartwright said Tuesday there was no indication the boy was forced to have sex with Harper, but sex with a minor who is six years or more younger is a class B felony in North Carolina.

If convicted, Harper could get 16 years in prison.

The boy and his mother went to the sheriff last week and reported that the incident occurred in late November.

Cartwright said Harper had admitted having sex with the boy.

``He lived in the neighborhood,'' Cartwright said. Harper was unemployed.

Cases where women have been charged with rape are very rare. In 1995, police in North Carolina arrested 734 men and nine women for forcible rape, according to statistics from the Attorney General's office. KEYWORDS: RAPE SEX CRIME

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