Four men accused of raping a pair of teenage girls at a Myrtle Beach hotel avoided jail time after striking a plea agreement.
Edward House, Bryce Charleson, Cody Haux and Jamel Quick agreed to plead guilty to assault and battery charges Thursday in South Carolina, reported WPDE-TV.
Each man was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to have no contact with the victims, who had been visiting from Kentucky.
The girls, then 14 and 15 years old, went for a walk April 9, 2015, while vacationing with the older girl's family, and they met the four older teenagers.
They later told police they drank alcohol and went back to the men's hotel room, where one girl said she was raped by three of the men and the other girl said she was raped by one of them.
They went to an area hospital afterward to report the rapes, and all four men were charged with sexual assault.
However, prosecutors said the circumstances of the cases would require four separate trials, and the victims agreed to support a plea bargain to keep from testifying in each trial.
A victim's advocate read from a statement from each of the girls, who described feeling fearful and anxious after the attacks.
The judge scolded the four men as they were sentenced under the Youthful Offenders Act, and told them they were being granted a second chance.
He also asked the men if they had sisters, and three of them raised their hands.
The judge then asked them to consider what punishment they believed would be justified if their own sisters had been assaulted.
