State police charge Derry Township man with raping juvenile girl
Share this post:
State police on Wednesday arrested a Derry Township man, charging him with rape and sexual abuse involving a girl over eight years, according to court documents.
Tyler A. Elsworth, 21, was arraigned on 30 counts of sexual assault, 20 counts each of rape and rape of a child, 10 counts each of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and two counts of photographing a sex act.
Trooper Jason Kinger reported that the investigation began in July after state police received a report from a New York child abuse hotline that a teen girl there told authorities she was repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted by Elsworth between 2008, when she was about 4 years old, until 2016.
Kinger reported the girl told New York authorities that many of the sexual assaults occurred in Derry Township.
She told police during an interview in New York that, when the abuse started, “she didn’t know what was happening, but knew it wasn’t good.”
“The victim stated that, later in life, she realized the defendant was raping her,” Kinger said in court documents.
She alleged that many of the rapes and sexual abuse occurred in Elsworth’s bedroom and he sometimes “photographed the victim when she was naked and (took) pictures of her feet.”
According to court documents, she stated that when she was 11 or 12, Elsworth apologized to her.
She quoted Elsworth as telling her after one assault, “I’m sorry. I know this is wrong but my inner demons make me do this stuff.”
Kinger reported the girl told investigators the abuse stopped in 2016 when she was 12 and “fought him off.”
At that time, she also reported the repeated assaults to a relative and Elsworth stopped speaking to her. The teen now resides in New York, police said.
Kinger said Elsworth was interviewed Friday and admitted to committing the assaults “and gave a written statement.”
Elsworth did not have an attorney listed in court dockets. According to online court records, Elsworth has no prior criminal record in Pennsylvania.
Elsworth was ordered held in the county jail on $20,000. A preliminary hearing is scheduled Sept. 1.