An 82-year-old Tacony man accused of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl appeared in a Bucks County court last week.
John Taylor Hovatter, of the 6800 block of Walker Street, was charged in April with aggravated indecent assault of a child and four other related crimes. He waived his preliminary hearing June 5 and is set to be arraigned July 5 in Doylestown.
He met the victim and her family through church and began visiting their house in Langhorne beginning in 2015, when the girl was just 6, according to an affidavit of probable cause written by a Middletown Township Police detective.
At one point, he was going to the house multiple times a week and would sometimes be left alone in the living room to watch television, police said.
In January, the girl, identified in court documents only by her initials, started getting annoyed by Hovatter’s visits. She told her parents that he had touched her genitals, according to the affidavit.
Authorities interviewed the girl, who told them Hovatter would often ask her to sit next to him or on his lap. She said he would then touch her vagina and anus, putting his hand “in,” according to court documents.
Hovatter declined to comment on the allegations through his attorney, William Davis.
It’s not the first time Hovatter has faced charges relating to the sexual assault of minors. He pleaded guilty in 1986 to indecent assault in Bucks County, according to court records.
However, Hovatter is not listed on sex offender registry. The federal and state laws requiring the lists were implemented in the 1990s.
Hovatter remains free on bond. Court documents indicate he posted 10 percent of his $250,000 bail on April 5, the day charges were filed in the case. ••
