Bucks youth group leader charged with sex assaults on teen girls
Authorities arrested a Bensalem church youth-group leader Monday on charges that he sexually assaulted two teenage girls at his church, and prosecutors warned that more victims may be out there.
Authorities arrested a Bensalem church youth-group leader Monday on charges that he sexually assaulted two teenage girls at his church, and prosecutors warned that more victims may be out there.
Michael Walusimbi, 22, turned himself in to Middletown Township police nearly three weeks after he met with them and admitted to elements of each assault, according to the Bucks County District Attorney's Office.
Prosecutors said the girls, 13 and 15 years old, were assaulted on separate occasions over the summer at Oxford Valley Chapel on Bristol-Oxford Valley Road in Middletown. Both were members of the youth group that Walusimbi helped oversee. The church's website describes it as an independent Christian church.
The 13-year-old, in an account she gave to police in September, said Walusimbi held her arms behind her back, bent her face-first over a table, and pulled down her pants before assaulting her in July, according to an affidavit filed in the case.
The 15-year-old met with investigators in October and told them of a summer occurrence during which Walusimbi pushed her face-first onto a table. Before she managed to break free, prosecutors said, Walusimbi whispered into the girl's ear that someday she would call him a pedophile.
A message for defense lawyer Gail Marr, whom prosecutors identified as representing Walusimbi, was not immediately returned Monday.
Authorities charged Walusimbi with institutional sexual assault, attempted institutional sexual assault, indecent assault, attempted indecent assault, felony corruption of minors, and misdemeanor corruption of minors. Bail was set at $50,000.
Authorities said they had reason to believe he victimized others, too, and urged people to contact Middletown Sgt. Matthew Kroiss, Detective Andrew Amoroso, or Deputy District Attorney Antonetta Stancu.
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