Marine charged with sexual assault after 14-year-old found in California barracks

A U.S. Marine has been charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl who was found in his barracks at his Southern California base, the military announced Aug. 11.

The Marine, who has not been named publicly, was charged by military prosecutors with sexual assault of a minor and violating liberty restriction from an earlier, unrelated case. In a statement.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Thursday, when will decide whether he will face a court-martial, Capt. Charles Palmer with the 1st Marine Logistics Group told The Associated Press.

Other details of the case, including how he met the girl and how she got onto the base, were not immediately released.

The Marine was initially held in custody and questioned in July when military police found the 14-year-old on June 28 at the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California, roughly 40 miles north of San Diego. He was later released and was not formally charged until August.

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The girl was reported missing by her grandmother. Investigators believed she had run away from her grandparents' home in Spring Valley in San Diego County earlier in June. Once she was found in the barracks, detectives interviewed her, and the family was offered services, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.

Contributing: The Associated Press.