6 charged in youth detention center sex abuse probe

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Six men were arrested Wednesday in connection with sexual abuse allegations at New Hampshire's state-run youth detention center, the attorney general's office said.

The Sununu Youth Services Center, formerly known as the Youth Development Center, has been the focus of a broad criminal investigation since July 2019. Two former counselors at the Manchester facility were charged with 82 counts of rape at that time, but the charges were dismissed last year in order to strengthen the wider investigation.

Both of them were arrested again Wednesday and charged with rape. Three others also were charged with rape, while the sixth was charged with being an accomplice to sexual assault. The allegations span from 1994 to 2005.

Meanwhile, more than 200 men and women have joined a civil lawsuit in the last year alleging they were physically or sexually abused as children by 150 staffers from 1963 to 2018.