An 83-year-old Tacony man has been sentenced to 2 to 5 years in prison after pleading guilty to indecent assault on a person under 13.
The plea was negotiated, and Bucks County Common Pleas Court Judge Raymond F. McHugh made John Taylor Hovatter’s sentencing official. The count is a first-degree misdemeanor.
Hovatter, of the 6800 block of Walker St., was charged with sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl.
According to Middletown Township police documents, 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. The girl told her parents that he had touched her genitals, according to an 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. He was arrested in April 2019.
Hovatter is now on Pennsylvania’s Megan’s Law website. ••
