A 38-year-old Huntington Station man has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing his daughter, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said Wednesday.
According to court documents and the defendant’s statements, Tierney’s office said, the defendant began abusing her during his weekend visits beginning in the summer of 2016, when the victim was 7 years old.
The defendant told the victim that if she told anyone about what he did, that something bad would happen to her.
He pleaded guilty to:
- Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child in the First Degree, a Class B violent felony;
- Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child in the Second Degree, a Class D violent felony;
- Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree, a Class A misdemeanor; and
- Endangering the Welfare of a Child, a Class A misdemeanor.
“This defendant was an absent father who came back into his child’s life only to sexually abuse her shortly thereafter,” Tierney said. “Fortunately, the victim felt comfortable
confiding in her teacher which led to a thorough investigation by the Suffolk County Police
Department and prosecution by my office, culminating in his admittance of guilt. I want to thank everyone involved in this case for zealously protecting the rights of this child.”
The District Attorney’s Office is not naming the defendant in order to protect the identity of the child victim.
The abuse continued until 2019, when the victim, who was 10 years old at the time, told her mother that she was no longer comfortable sleeping at the defendant’s house. In 2022, the victim told a teacher what the defendant had done, which prompted a police investigation and subsequent arrest of the defendant.
He is due back in court for sentencing on Feb. 9.
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