DENVER -- A 13-year-old cheerleader attending summer camp at the Air Force Academy in 2001 was sexually assaulted by a camp counselor, who was then a senior cadet at the academy. She spoke out for the first time with 7NEWS Investigator John Ferrugia.

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Her parents said they feel betrayed by a system that is more intent on protecting the academy's reputation than prosecuting criminals. The case was handled by Air Force prosecutors and Air Force defense attorneys at the academy and they made a deal, 7NEWS reported, which is why the cadet in question -- who admitted he sexually assaulted a child -- received only 60 days in jail.

"I believe that the whole process was nothing more than a mockery and a cover up," said Tom, Abbey's father. "They really don't care. All that matters to them is protect the name."

Abbey is now 15-years-old but still suffers the emotional scars as a victim of sexual assault.

She was 13-years-old and an aspiring middle school cheerleader when she attended a summer sports camp at the Air Force Academy.

"I always thought the Air Force was the like the safest place you could be," she said. "They are the best people in the United States, that's what I thought."

Like the hundreds of other teenagers from all over the country, Abbey was under the watchful eyes of senior air force cadet counselors, including the 22-year-old senior who would attack her, Ferrugia said.

A few days after she arrived at the camp, in the middle of the night, cadet Robert Ryan Burdge and his roommate snuck into the girls' dorm, banging on Abbey's door. Her 13-year-old roommate answered.

"She opened the door and they just walked in," Abbey said.

At first she wasn't afraid because she had met Burdge before, but when she was led to his dorm room in another building, that changed.

"I was scared. I didn't know what was going to happen. I didn't know what they were going to do," Abbey said.

She said the two cadets were drinking and one sniffed a white powder. Then, Burdge's roommate got up to leave the room.

"I felt nauseous because I had seen stuff that I had never seen before and I didn't know what to do. I was stuck there," Abbey said.

Abbey said she tried to get away by telling Burdge she had to use the restroom, but he wouldn't let her go. Then Abbey said the senior Air Force Academy cadet sexually assaulted her, forcing her to into sexual acts.

When he finally took her back to her room, he warned her not to talk.

"He just kept on telling me, 'Don't tell anyone,' and threatening me with that," she said.

Abbey never told her parents what happened until they received a call from an Air Force Academy investigator.

"I felt so sick and I could tell that ... I could tell how devastated she was, how hard it was for her to tell me," Joanne said.

"It just ... it destroys you as you think of that poor little child going through something like that," Tom said.

But their shock turned to anger when they learned about Abbey's attacker. Burdge was assigned to be a cadet counselor with responsibility over minors, even though he was on conduct probation at the academy and was the focus of a drug investigation. In fact, it was through that investigation that the Air Force agents heard about the sexual assault.

When 7NEWS contacted Burdge, he declined to discuss it.

"I said, 'How could you put someone under a felony investigation in a children's camp as a camp counselor?' (They) couldn't answer that other than, "Those things sometimes happen.' ... I just couldn't believe what I was hearing," Tom said.

Air Force investigators also found that Burdge stalked Abbey soon after she arrived at the camp. First he sent an e-mail to a fellow cadet looking for her, to no avail, 7NEWS reported. Two nights later, Burdge went to the girls' dorm looking for her. But again, no luck.

Finally, two nights later, he returned with his roommate, taking Abbey out of her room and attacking her, Ferrugia said.

Air Force investigators needed proof of what had happened so they set up a wire tap and arranged for Abbey to call Burdge as they listened.

"He pretty much set himself up," Abbey said.

"One man said that it was the best wire tap he had seen in 19 years of investigating," her father said.

"The one guy told me that he would get at least 10 years in jail," Abbey said.

Just as the family began the process of recovery, rumors began to circulate at Abbey's school.

"What we found out was a defense attorney had contacted classmates," Tom said.

Ferrugia: What was she trying to find out?
Abbey: If I had done other stuff so that it would make it seem like that wasn't the first time.
Ferrugia: Sexual things?
Abbey: Yeah

"Whenever myself or my co-counsel interviewed anybody in this case, we called parents first," said attorney Erin Glen.

Glen, who is now in private practice, was Burdge's Air Force defense attorney.

Ferrugia: You went and interviewed classmates of the victim?
Glen: No, we didn't go to the school.
Ferrugia: You went to the home?
Glen: No, actually that was over the phone.

Glenn said she had every right to try to find out if the middle school girl had a sexual history. In fact, two of Abbey's 13-year-old girlfriends were interviewed and Glenn even tried to speak with boys in Abbey's class.

"My co-counsel contacted the boys' parents and never even got to the point where we were able to talk to them," Glenn said.

In the weeks that followed, communication with the Air Force prosecutor -- the lawyer who was supposed to be working with Abby and her family -- slowed to a trickle.

"In my mind they had no intent to do the right thing or they would have done it," Tom said.

What Abbey's family didn't know is that the Air Force prosecutor had made a deal with Burdge and his Air Force defense attorney, 7NEWS reported.

A document in the case states the facts that the two lawyers agreed on. Among those facts is that Abbey went willingly with her attacker to his room. With reference to the attack, the lawyer agreed that the victim told a friend she "enjoyed it" and that Burdge did not know Abby was 13 years old.

The family was outraged. They said they were never consulted or even saw the document until after Burdge had been sentenced.

"It was like she was the perp. And this was a child!" Tom said. "This was a child it was done to. We are talking about a child who is 13 years old."

During the sentencing hearing neither Abbey nor her family were allowed by the Air Force prosecutors to tell the jury what impact the attack had on her life.

"'We can't have you there,' (they said) and the excuse was because this is something that could enrage you and that could be a problem," Tom said.

But there was testimony about Burdge's good character and without rebuttal from the prosecution.

"She was not the victim in that courtroom," Joanne said.

In fact, both Burdge and his lawyer claim he was a victim, Ferrugia said.

"I think that along with the felony, along with having to register as a sex offender, paying back 140-something-thousand dollars, and those other things, I think he got slammed," Glenn said.

"Kicked out of the Air Force?! Big deal! For what he did to a 13-year-old child. He stalked her. You hear that and it just enrages you. And then to have them infer it was her fault. That's the attitude in the whole group. It's that the victim is the problem. Keep their little name clean ... it's not right," Tom said bitterly.

Neither the Air Force counsel at the Pentagon nor academy officials would talk about this case.

Instead they gave 7NEWS an official statement which reads in part: The Air Force regrets and no way condones or minimizes the trauma the victim suffered as a result of this criminal act.

Officials note that the cadet was "dismissed from the Air Force" and "will have to register as a sex offender."

"The child had no culpability in the matter", reads the statement, "nor has it ever been the position of the Air Force that she did."

Yet in court, the Air Force lawyers agreed and told the Air Force jury in Burdge's sentencing that he did not force the 13-year-old girl into any act.

They also said Abbey went willingly to his room. No one was in the courtroom to object.

In the courtroom, the Air Force blamed the victim, Ferrugia said, and that why Abbey's family believes Burdge is free today.