Shirley Man Convicted Of Sexually Abusing Ex-Girlfriend's Daughters

RIVERSIDE, NY — A Shirley man was found guilty Friday of charges he sexually abused the two daughters of his ex-live-in girlfriend, Suffolk prosecutors said Tuesday.

Prosecutors are not naming the defendant to protect the identities of the two child victims.

Between September 2019 and January 2022, he lived with his then girlfriend and her children, one of whom he repeatedly touched on the vagina while she was between seven and nine years old, according to prosecutors.

The incidents happened at night, after the child had gone to bed, prosecutors said.

In January 2022, the child disclosed to her older sister the defendant had been touching her repeatedly, but what the younger child did not know at the time of her disclosure was that her older sister had also been subjected to inappropriate conduct by the defendant as well, according to prosecutors.

The sisters told their mother about the abuse and the she confronted the defendant before removing him from the home, prosecutors said.

When confronted, he offered several explanations for his behavior, including that he wanders at night and accidentally went into the wrong room, that he “gets handsy” at night and might have thought the victim was his girlfriend, prosecutors said, adding that the younger victim might have mistakenly thought that he touched her vagina while he was looking for the remote control in her bed to turn the television off.

District Attorney Ray Tierney said the man "exploited his access to the child victims to abuse them."

"Rather than protecting these two children, this defendant took advantage of their innocence to abuse them," he said. “My office will do everything in our power to protect children from abuse by ensuring that those who harm them are vigorously prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

The defendant was convicted after a jury trial on charges of one count of second-degree course of sexual conduct against a child, a felony, and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor – one count for each of the sisters.

He was represented by the Suffolk County Legal Aid Society and is due back in court for sentencing on June 26.