After inflicting ‘horrendous’ abuse on a child, a Collingdale man was sentenced to state prison

A Collingdale man was sentenced Wednesday to five to 10 years in state prison after pleading guilty to abusing his ex-girlfriend’s 6-year-old son.

Steven Dougherty, 32, entered the plea to aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child during a hearing before Montgomery County Judge Virgil Walker. Walker fumed at Dougherty during the proceeding, calling the “horrendous” abuse he had dealt to the victim some of the worst he had seen in his time on the bench.

“I can only imagine the sheer terror you put that child through,” Walker said. “You did not give this boy a chance to live a normal life. You stole that from him.”

Prosecutors, led by Assistant District Attorney Lauren Marvel, presented evidence that Dougherty kicked and beat the boy repeatedly between January and November 2021, when Dougherty lived with the boy’s mother in Lower Pottsgrove Township. The boy also told investigators that Dougherty once held his head under water in an attempt to drown him.

The abuse left lasting injuries to the child, including bruised ribs and an infection that required him to be hospitalized.

In statements read in court by a victim advocate, the boy’s grandparents said he is still suffering from the effects of these injuries: He has constant nightmares, mood swings, and trouble focusing at school. These issues, they said, will likely plague him for the rest of his life.

“When you love a child, and you care for them, you will do anything to take away their pain,” the grandparents said. “Unfortunately, the man who was entrusted to watch over him didn’t share that belief.”

The victim, in his own statement read in court, had a short, direct message to Dougherty: “I think Steven should stay in jail for 9,000 weeks.”

Dougherty, seated next to his attorney, Pierre Latour III, declined to testify during the proceeding. He told reporters as he was being escorted out of the courtroom that he was innocent. He only pleaded guilty, he said, in exchange for a reduced sentence.

Marvel, the prosecutor, said afterward that the negotiated plea was the best outcome for the victim and his family, and spared them from having to testify at a trial.

“There has not been a day that this child has been able to escape the trauma of what the defendant did to him,” she said. “Sentences very seldom feel like enough, but I think this sentence was just, it was the right outcome, and most importantly it made sure this child would be spared from any further trauma and that he was safe.”