A Long Island jury has convicted a man accused of sexually abusing his young stepdaughter for years, prosecutors announced Thursday.
The 49-year-old man, whose name hasn’t been released to protect the victim’s identity, began his 7-year reign of terror in 2017, when the girl, her siblings and their mother moved into the defendant’s home in Central Islip, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
All members of the family shared the same large room, according to investigators. Shortly after the move, the defendant began sexually assaulting the victim “several times a week whenever they were alone,” officials said.
She was 8 years old at the time of the onset of abuse.
The pattern of abuse, which went on until the victim was 15, only came to an end early last year.
On Jan. 11, 2024, while the defendant was sexually assaulting the victim, he heard one of her siblings approaching and interrupted the abuse.
The girl then went into the bathroom, cried, and texted a friend and her mother asking for help.
Her mother contacted authorities, who launched an investigation and eventually arrested the girl’s stepfather.
Earlier this week, a jury found him guilty of course of sexual conduct against a child, a felony, as well as endangering the welfare of a child and sexual abuse, both misdemeanor offenses.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 2 and faces up to seven in prison, officials said.
Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said his office will seek the maximum possible sentence.
“The defendant’s responsibility was to keep this child safe but instead he brought years of suffering,” Tierney said.
