Trial account: Bucks tattooist impregnated 15-year-old

Tattoo artist Walter Meyerle got a 15-year-old Yardley girl pregnant, and sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl and her 8-year-old brother during sleepovers at his Bristol Borough home, according to accounts presented Wednesday in Bucks County Court.

Meyerle, 35, of Falls Township, had sex with the Yardley girl over a five-month period in 2002 and raped her after she ended the relationship, according to her account.

After the alleged rape, he told her "she'd have a surprise in nine months," according to the account read by Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Schorn on the third day of Meyerle's child-sex-assault trial.

Meyerle is charged with about 200 sex crimes against 15 children ages 4 to 17. If convicted of the alleged assaults over 13 years, starting in 1998, he could face more than 150 years in prison.

In the case of the Yardley girl, she said that she cried during the alleged rape, and that Meyerle said her "tears were sexy" and "turned him on."

About eight weeks later, the girl had morning sickness, missed school, and told her mother, who gave her a pregnancy test. She had an abortion at the Women's Center in Philadelphia, according to the account.

The girl could not say whether she became pregnant as a result of the alleged rape or from intercourse she had with Meyerle during their relationship, Schorn said. They had sex 15 to 20 times during the five months.

In 2000, Meyerle started assaulting a 13-year-old Bristol Borough girl and her 8-year-old brother after their grandmother died, according to their accounts. The grandmother had been raising the girl and her three young brothers, and the children began hanging out at Meyerle's house on Jefferson Avenue.

According to the accounts of the girl and the brother: Meyerle would drive the boy around in his monster truck, and had video games in his house - it was "everything a young boy could want."

The children would sleep over, and Meyerle awakened the boy at least four times by sexually assaulting him. The boy pretended to sleep, and didn't tell anyone about the attacks for eight years.

After a few weeks, Meyerle invited only the girl to spend weekends. For 18 months, she spent most weekends at Meyerle's house and was assaulted almost every time.

He would awaken her by whispering "You're pretty" in her ear. The assaults started with fondling and sexual touching, with his telling her, "All girls do this."

After a few weeks, the attacks turned to oral sex, and then to intercourse.

Meyerle threatened to hurt her brothers if she refused his advances, and told her no one would believe her if she tried to report him.

She didn't want to go to his house, but her parents told her that "it was good to get out" and that "she would have a good time."

Meyerle is charged with rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, unlawful contact with minors, aggravated indecent assault, sexual assault, and statutory sexual assault, all felonies. He also faces dozens of misdemeanor charges.

He waived his right to a jury trial, and his two court-appointed lawyers have stipulated that the prosecution's accounts accurately represent the witnesses' testimony, though not the factual accuracy of events. The defense retains the right to challenge the accounts during the trial and on appeal.

The alleged victims' names were presented in court, but are being withheld by The Inquirer.

Because a jury trial was waived, Judge Diane E. Gibbons reversed a ruling and will consider charges that Meyerle allegedly plotted to break out of the county prison, where he has been held since March 17.