The Jefferson Parish district attorney’s office formally charged a man with sexually abusing a 4-year-old boy who attended the in-home Metairie daycare run by the man’s mother more than 20 years ago.
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David Rees, 49, of Metairie, was charged March 14 with molestation of a juvenile and oral sexual battery, according to Jefferson Parish court records. The state also charged Rees with seven counts of possession of pornography involving juveniles under the age of 13.
Rees pleaded not guilty.
The case began as an investigation into child pornography possession. The Louisiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received a tip that Rees was storing sexually explicit images of young children on electronic devices and other internet storage accounts, authorities said.
Task force agents served a warrant at Rees’ Aurora Avenue home in January where Rees confessed to downloading the images, authorities said.
When asked during questioning if he’d ever touched any children, Rees eventually admitted inappropriate contact with a young boy who attended an in-home daycare run by Rees’ mother, authorities said. The contact occurred more than 20 years earlier, he said.
Rees was arrested and booked with 500 counts of child pornography possession, likely one count for each image discovered.
Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives took over the investigation into the molestation confession and discovered a December 1996 complaint filed with the department in which a woman reported that Rees sexually abused her then-4-year-old son, authorities said.
Investigators tracked down the victim, who is now 26, the Sheriff’s Office said. Rees is accused of separating the boy from the other children at the daycare whenever Rees’ mother would leave the house to run errands.
Rees molested the boy and told the child it was their “fun secret,” a game that no one else was special enough to play, according to authorities. The boy’s mother discovered the abuse because her son shared the “secret.”
The Sheriff’s Office turned the case over to the Jefferson Parish district attorney’s office for review in 1997, but the case was refused.
The male victim told detectives in February that he wanted to proceed with charges against Rees, the Sheriff’s Office said. The man’s mother also spoke with investigators earlier this year and revealed that the abuse “had had a profound effect” on her son, authorities said.
Rees was being held Wednesday (April 3) at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna in lieu of a $75,700 bond. He returns to court on May 9 for a pre-trial conference.
via nola.comhttps://www.nola.com
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