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Timothy O’Sullivan, 26, also can never contact the girl or her family again, under the sentence imposed Friday by a judge in Hackensack.
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Dion Findley told Superior Court Judge James J. Guida that every aspect of O’Sullivan’s plea deal was negoiated with the girl’s guardian, her aunt.
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Dion Findley (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
The youngster’s mother died of a heart attack when she was only 7 and her father was a physical and emotional abuser, prompting child welfare authorities to put her in the custody of her godmother, the aunt said in a letter to the judge.
The godmother’s home was very loosely structured, however. There she met and had sex with O’Sullivan.
According to the aunt, with whom she now lives, the girl suffers from mistrust and guarded feelings since her encounter with O’Sullivan and is often unwilling to leave her bedroom.
“I have found her sitting in the dark, rocking,” the woman wrote.
“The loss of her mother has resurfaced during this stressful time,” she added. “She believed Timothy was her only friend, the only one who cared about her.
“But I’m grateful he pleaded guilty.
“She has begun to progress emotionally once she came to my house,” the aunt wrote, “and she says she would like to become a lawyer in the field of child advocacy.”
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