YORK COUNTY — A 24-year-old York man has been charged with two felonies and two misdemeanors after police say he was sexting with his 13-year-old neighbor.
Kyle Lee Lovejoy, of the 300 block of Waldorf Drive, also had inappropriate contact with the girl, according to Northern York Regional Police.
Lovejoy is charged with aggravated indecent assault on a person less than 16 years of age, unlawful contact with a minor, corruption of minors, and indecent assault on a person less than 16 years of age, according to a criminal complaint filed by police.
Police began investigating on March 27, when the girl’s father reported “inappropriate messages” between the girl and Lovejoy, who used Facebook Messenger to communicate. A friend of the victim allowed her to use her cellphone to access her Facebook account and communicate with Lovejoy, and later took screen shots of messages between Lovejoy and the victim and showed them to her mother. The girl’s mother passed the information to the victim’s father, according to police.
Police later observed the screen shots, and obtained the cell phones involved for forensic analysis.
Police say there were approximately 107 messages between Lovejoy and the victim. The majority were discussions of how they wanted to “cuddle” with one another and discuss meeting up at each other’s trailers during the night. Others, police say, were sexual in nature. In one, police say, Lovejoy asked the girl if she wanted “special sauce” on her “taco,” and if she wanted to sample his “sauce” that night. In another, police say, Lovejoy told the girl he did not have “protection.”
Police later interviewed the victim, who allegedly admitted that she and Lovejoy had “sexted” for about a week. She said she had invited Lovejoy to sneak in to her room at night to “talk and cuddle,” but things began escalating faster than she was comfortable with, and she eventually began locking her window and placing a dresser in front of it at night, the complaint states.
A few weeks prior to the interview with police, the victim said, Lovejoy met her in her backyard during the night, and the began talking. Lovejoy allegedly pinned the victim’s arms over her head, kissed her, and began touching her genitals with his hand. After stopping, the victim told police, Lovejoy threatened to kill her if she told her family what had happened. The victim reported she went back inside after the encounter and cried in the shower for an hour.
Police interviewed Lovejoy on April 30, according to the complaint. Lovejoy reported he had gotten into an altercation with the victim’s father, whom he said struck him in the face. Lovejoy believed the fight was prompted by the father’s discovery of the Facebook messages, police say.
Lovejoy allegedly told police he was intoxicated when he sent the messages, but confirmed he was the one who sent them and identified the other party as the victim. He allegedly admitted the messages were inappropriate. Lovejoy initially denied having any physical contact with the girl, but later admitted to hugging and kissing her on the cheek and said the girl rubbed his penis. He allegedly told police he could not recall whether he touched the girl’s genitals, claiming he was intoxicated at the time. But, he said, if the victim said it happened it probably did, police say in the complaint.
After that incident, Lovejoy said, he and the girl had no further conversations.