Apr. 13—WEST CHESTER — A West Goshen man who brought a young girl to the United States from her native Honduras and then began molesting her when he lived with her mother has been found guilty on charges filed against him after the girl told her sister what was happening.
Luis Miguel Aguilar-Dircio was found guilty of multiple counts of aggravated indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor, corruption and minors and endangering the welfare of children by a jury hearing the trial in Judge Patrick Carmody’s courtroom Wednesday evening.
The panel, who heard from both the alleged victim and her older sister, deliberated about one hour before returning with a verdict. Aguilar-Dircio, 40, of West Goshen, has been held on $350,000 bail since his arrest in 2021, and was returned to Chester County Prison to await sentencing after the verdict.
Although the defendant did not testify in his own defense, his attorney contended that the events depicted by the prosecution did not occur. Even though Aguilar-Dircio acknowledged to police that he had touched the girl, the behavior had not been indecent, the attorney said.
“It was over the clothing, unintentional, and not sexual,” said Assistant Public Defender Grant Bloomdahl in his opening statement to the jury on Tuesday.
In her presentation to the panel, however, Assistant District Attorney Madeline Troutman said that the girl’s account could be corroborated not only by her testimony — which is sufficient to win a conviction on its own — but also by what her older sister would testify to and by Aguilar-Dircio’s own statement to police investigators.
The case began in April 2021, when the girl disclosed to her sister that Aguilar-Dircio had been sexually molesting her ever since the family moved in with him in April 2018. He would approach her in the morning, she said, and fondle her underneath her underwear.
The Media News Group does not name the alleged victims of sexual crimes.
The two girls had come to the country to live with their mother and Aguilar-Dircio, after he paid $13,000 to bring them here, Troutman said.
In addition to molesting her, the girl said that Aguilar-Dircio had sent her indecent photos on her phone. Troutman told the jury that Aguilar-Dircio warned her that if she told anyone, he would have her father killed.
The girl, who was 10 years old when she made the accusations, was interviewed by Detective David Nieves of the Chester County District Attorney’s Child Abuse Unit, and West Goshen Detective Jose Torres. She gave them an account of what happened, and then helped them set up a taped telephone conversation with Aguilar-Dircio in which he incriminated himself and apologized to the girl.
When the investigators questioned Aguilar-Dircio about the matter, he eventually acknowledged having improper contact with the girl. But he tried to minimize what had happened.
“He only admitted to the bare minimum,” Troutman said in her opening. “He did not want to get into trouble.”
The prosecution was led by Troutman and Senior Deputy District Attorney Erin O’Brien of the D.A.’s Child Abuse Unit.
To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.
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