A Millville, New Jersey man was arrested Monday on charges that he used candy and money to lure and sexually assault a 13-year-old neighbor, according to police.
Investigators say 43-year-old Thomas Taylor sexually assaulted the girl inside his Oak Street home as many as 15 times between early July and late August.
“It turns my stomach to know that a man would do this to a little girl,” the victim’s mother tells NBC Philadelphia.
She says her daughter is in special needs classes and "has the mind of a seven or eight-year-old.” Her daughter has had nightmare ever since the assaults, she says.
Taylor’s fiancée, Virginia Shafer, admits that they both gave the girl, who lived around the corner at the time of the alleged assaults, candy and money for new sneakers. She denies, however, that Taylor ever molested the girl.
“I love that man. He would never do anything like this,” Shafer tells NBC Philadelphia. “That’s terrible. That’s a lie. It’s not true.”
Millville Police say that Taylor often gave out candy to neighborhood children.
The suspect is behind bars in the Cumberland County jail. His bail is set at $250,000.
