A man surrendered to police Thursday night -- about three weeks after he allegedly raped a 12-year-old girl in an Upper Darby home and then walked her to school the next day.
Twenty-one-year-old Tarell Gatling, of the 300 block of Richfield Road, Upper Darby, met the girl on Nov. 19 near Walnut and 69th streets after she had run away, according to Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood.
The suspect brought her to his home, where he made her dinner, gave her a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, and told her to "get comfortable," Chitwood said.
The child fell asleep and Gatling, who had disrobed, began touching her depite the girl telling him to stop, he said.
"She fell asleep and when she woke up he raped her," Chitwood told the Delaware County Daily Times. "In the morning, she got dressed and he walked her to school."
The girl's mother located her daughter at school the next day and took her to a local hospital before she was tranferred to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for a sexual assault examination.
Gatling faces multiple charges including the rape of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, indecent assault of a child less than age 13, corrution of minors and other related offenses.
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