47°
An investigation into Jonathan Faucette, 55, ensued after New Hanover Township police on May 18 received a ChildLine report stating that the girl had described a sexual encounter with an older, married man, according to Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele and New Hanover Township Police Chief Kevin McKeon.
Investigators discovered that Faucette and the girl had met through the online chat and video platform "Omegle," authorities said.
The girl later began communicating with an Instagram account named “bigwhale1066," the DA's office said.
They agreed to meet at a New Hanover Township park on May 7, where Faucette spread a blue blanket in the woods and then sexually assaulted the girl through intercourse, oral sex, and other sex acts, despite her refusal, according to a criminal complaint.
The girl said in those Instagram conversations, Faucette told her that he was married. She said she asked him why he would, "hit on little kids like me when you have a wife," and that he replied, "a lot of kids enjoy meeting up with me. I like to see the pleasure on their faces," the complaint says.
She further stated that he told her he had previously had sex with a 13-year-old whom he also met in the woods and that he told her he was "attracted to minors," the complaint says.
On June 2, police served search warrants on Facebook for the records related to the Instagram account, which provided IP addresses for the account from Comcast and Verizon.
The two accounts were then traced to Faucette's Perkasie home.
A search of his house and car turned up a blue blanket and a silver vibrator with a purple button on top consistent with the victim’s account of the assault, the complaint says.
In an interview on July 16, Faucette admitted that he met with the girl after speaking with her for approximately one week online, authorities said. He described the assault, the location, and acknowledged that he knew the girl was under 16, the complaint says.
Faucette also admitted details relating to a similar pattern of meeting teenage girls on "Omegle" and other websites as far back as 2011, the complaint says.
He said the bulk of the encounters included sexual intercourse, oral sex, and other sexual offenses with girls aged 14 through 20 in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Virginia, according to the complaint.
“The online world is a serious threat to young girls and boys since its anonymity makes it attractive to sexual predators. This defendant was preying on young girls on a website/app called Omegle, which markets itself as ‘Talk to Strangers! There are some very cool people in the world,” DA Steele said.
“Omegle has come under fire before for not verifying the ages of any user or monitoring the communications on its platform as it matches users with random strangers to have one-on-one chats. Parents need to make sure they talk to their kids about the dangers in using this kind of a platform, how people can lie about who they are, and above all, the danger of meeting someone in real life who they have only talked to online. Stranger danger is real online.”
Faucette was charged with felony statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, corruption of minors, unlawful contact with minors, criminal use of communications facility, and other related charges.
He was arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Henry J. Nesbitt III, who set bail at $500,000 cash, with additional conditions of no contact with the victim, no contact with juveniles, and no internet usage.
Faucette was unable to post bail and was remanded to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility.
A preliminary hearing is set for July 27 before Magisterial District Judge Maurice Saylor.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Chief of Trials Brianna Ringwood, who oversees the Family Protection Unit, and Assistant District Attorney Gabrielle Glenning.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Drexel Hill-Upper Darby and receive free news updates.
