HARRISBURG — Attorney General Dave Sunday announced charges against a 59-year-old Lancaster County man who attempted to sexually abuse who he thought was a pre-teenage girl he met online.
Geoffrey Ottens, of Mount Joy, is charged with felony counts of unlawful contact with a minor (rape of a child), unlawful contact with a minor (involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child), and numerous other related offenses, including numerous felonies for trading child sexual abuse material in online groups.
Ottens was recently arraigned and denied bail, as the presiding magisterial district judge deemed him a “flight risk” and noted the “severity” of the charges.
The Office of Attorney General’s Child Predator Section collaborated with law enforcement partners, including the Lebanon County District Attorney’s Office, to proactively investigate Ottens.
“This defendant had a twisted fascination with young children and was lurking online waiting for an opportunity to not only communicate with a child, but to physically meet and sexually abuse a child,” Attorney General Sunday said. “I commend law enforcement partners, like the Lebanon County District Attorney’s Office, for devoting resources to rooting out predators who think they are in the darkness of online chat rooms targeting kids. We will find those predators and hold them fully accountable.”
Lebanon County District Attorney Pier Hess Graf said:
“We are proud of the work that we have done with our Lebanon County Human Trafficking Task Force. Our police officers continue to work hard every day to remove pedophiles and predators from our community. This is proof that the task force is working and our community is safer because of it. We would like to thank everyone involved with the detail.”
Investigators served a search warrant last week at Ottens’ home on Wood Street in Mount Joy and seized and searched electronic devices. The investigation showed Ottens was disseminating child sexual abuse material files and possessed more than 100 such files.
An Office of Attorney General agent, assisted by the Lebanon County District Attorney’s Office, posed as an 11-year-old girl online and was ultimately solicited, by Ottens, for sexual abuse. The agent made clear they were an 11-year-old girl and Ottens continued his pursuit of the “child.”
The case is being prosecuted by Deputy Attorney General Jacob Jividen of the Child Predator Section. Criminal charges, and any discussion thereof, are merely allegations and all defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
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