Fuckin’ Kids

Remember that horrifying, disgusting story about the 58-year-old janitor accused of raping an eight-year-old girl repeatedly at school? You know — the janitor whose picture was all over the evening news and in the tabloids. Yeah, well that was basically all made up:

A judge yesterday tossed out the case against a man accused of raping an 8- year-old girl in the school where she was a student and he a janitor — as prosecutors admitted that her story had fallen apart.

Francis Evelyn, 58, who had maintained his innocence, sobbed as he left the Brooklyn courthouse.

“He’s been through quite a bit this week,” defense attorney Richard Spivack said.

The girl’s mom told police on Monday that her daughter said she’d been repeatedly assaulted over the last month in a school bathroom.

Evelyn was arrested later on that day after the girl identified him as her attacker. Bail was set at $150,000.

But on Wednesday he was suddenly released without bail, prompting speculation that the case was considered shaky.

Prosecutors said yesterday that during further questioning, they concluded that the child’s account had too many inconsistencies to be credible.

That’s a wire story in the Post (classy!), who should feel at least a little sheepish about running this story. The Daily News coverage is a little more contrite:

After days of falsely being portrayed as a child rapist, a Brooklyn school custodian broke down in tears yesterday as the charges against him were dismissed.

“Just kill me,” a distraught Francis Evelyn, 58, muttered to family members who tried to soothe him as he left Brooklyn Criminal Court.

Evelyn had been led out of Public School 91 in Wingate in handcuffs on Monday and spent two days in jail at Rikers Island after an 8-year-old girl said he had repeatedly molested her in a basement bathroom between Feb. 1 and March 9.

But the Trinidad native knew he was innocent.

“I went through hell,” Evelyn later told Channel 7 news.

He said he would never forget being in jail — his first time ever behind bars, the station reported.

“They were threatening me, and tell me they’re going to take me out, they’re gonna cut my throat,” he said. “It’s their sister, their niece. It was hell.”