Alleged Rapist Used Chat App To Coerce Teen Victim: Police

BONNEY LAKE, WA - Bonney Lake detectives this week arrested a 55-year-old Puyallup man who allegedly used an online chat application to threaten and manipulate a 17-year-old girl into a sexual relationship over the course of nearly two months in 2018.

Errol Leon Van Pevenage, Jr. was booked into Pierce County Jail on Wednesday evening. He currently faces charges of rape, sexual exploitation of a minor, communicating with a minor for immoral purposes, and commercial sexual abuse of a minor. His bail is set at $2 million.

Court documents obtained by Patch reveal Van Pevenage met his teen victim on the website chathour.com around March 1, 2018. Between March 1 and April 24, Van Pevenage allegedly used the website's video chat option to unscrupulously convince the girl to perform sexual acts, which he watched and at least once used a cell phone to record.

Additionally, investigators confirmed that Van Pevenage at least once during the period of communication purchased a hotel room and told the teen victim to sneak out of her parents' home to meet him for sex.

At some point the girl's mother took her cell phone, so Van Pevenage reportedly bought her a new one that he used to continue communicating with her.

Court documents do not explain what precipitated the mother's action or whether it was related to the case. However, the documents do show the girl tried unsuccessfully to end her communication with Van Pevenage.

Van Pevenage reportedly coerced the girl into continuing the illicit communication by threatening to tell her parents what she'd been doing and by threatening to burn down her house, admitting to investigators that he was "upset" when she told him she wanted to stop; threatening her was his attempt "to teach her a lesson," he said.

Van Pevenage was in court Thursday for his arraignment. His next court date is set for March 12, with a jury trial tentatively scheduled to begin April 3.

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