Teacher assaulted six girls at two schools for ‘twisted sexual perversion,’ Bucks DA says

A Lehigh County man used his position as a soccer coach and teacher to groom and sexually assault six underage girls in two counties over 13 years, according to investigators.

Christian Howard Willman, 39, already jailed on charges of having inappropriate relationships with two former students, faced additional offenses Thursday as part of what investigators called an “assembly line for his twisted sexual perversion.”

“This defendant clearly uses his position of power to gain steady access to many young, unwitting women to whom his behavior is predatory in nature,” Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said Thursday.

Willman was initially charged with sexual assault by a sports official, sexual contact with a student, criminal solicitation, corruption of minors, and related offenses on May 14, after two former students from Palisades High School in Kintnersville — about an hour north of Philadelphia — reported his conduct.

He remained in custody Thursday, having not paid 10 percent of bail set at $1 million, court records show. Willman’s attorney, Matthew Sedacca, did not return a request for comment.

At the time of Willman’s arrest in May, a separate investigation was underway in Lehigh County, where two former students at Parkland High School had made similar complaints about him. Two additional victims in Lehigh came forward after Weintraub’s office announced Willman’s arrest, bringing the total number of victims to six, investigators said.

Investigators said Thursday that the two school districts had been cooperative, and that there had been no indication Willman had assaulted the girls until the victims came forward. The Palisades School District, in a statement, said Willman was fired after being put on administrative leave in April 2018, when the allegations first surfaced.

Weintraub said the girls were “incredibly brave” for coming forward, and offered a warning to parents and students in the two school communities.

“If your child had this man as a teacher, a club adviser, or a coach, please talk to her, make sure she’s OK," he said. "And contact us.”

Weintraub said Willman used a deliberate pattern: waiting until the girls were 16, then using flattering and affectionate text messages to lower their inhibitions before assaulting them. After graduation, the prosecutor said, Willman ceased all contact, as if they had “aged out of victimhood."

“If you may have had some kind of contact with this man of the type I just described, you may not consider yourself to be a victim in the traditional sense of the word, either because perhaps Willman convinced you he loved you, or you didn’t say no to his advances," Weintraub said, addressing the community. “But let us be the judge of whether you were one of his victims, whether his contact was inappropriate.”

The earliest assault took place in 2005, during Willman’s tenure as a teacher, soccer coach, and theater supervisor at Parkland, in Allentown, investigators said.

While at the school, Willman had sexual contact with four girls, all of whom said their relationship began through text messages, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.

One victim said he solicited nude pictures of her, and others told investigators he performed sexual acts on them on and off school property, including during a school function, the affidavit says.

Willman left Parkland in 2011 and was hired at Palisades, according to Weintraub. During his tenure at the school, authorities said, he victimized two former students.

One girl, who was 16 at the time, said Willman began messaging her through social media in 2017. The conversations continued during her junior year, and in 2018, Willman sexually assaulted her on school property.

Another victim said Willman had similar conversations with her in 2014, when she was a sophomore at the school.

In one message, Willman invited her to his home to drink alcohol, saying his wife and children were away. The girl told police that in the context of earlier messages he had sent her, it was “implied that Willman wanted to engage in sexual activities with her if she came over,” the affidavit says.