BATH, Maine — The monitoring of a 14-year-old girl’s Internet activity by her parents has led to charges of sexual abuse of a minor and criminal restraint, according to the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Department.
Chief Deputy Brett Strout said Andrew T. Mank, 21, of Bath is cooperating with police and has admitted to having a sexual relationship with the girl between March and November of last year. In addition to 15 counts of Class D sexual abuse of a minor, Mank is charged with one count of Class D criminal restraint, which Strout said stems from an incident last November in West Bath in which the girl, who is from Topsham, tried to leave and Mank forced her to stay.
“The victim wanted to leave the location they were at,” said Strout. “He dragged her back into the residence.”
Mank established and maintained his relationship with the girl over the Internet, according to a Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Department press release. Strout said the crimes were reported by the girl’s parents after they discovered her online activity. Strout said other people may be charged in connection with the case but would not discuss how they are connected or what they might be charged with.
All of the charges against Mank are misdemeanors and he has not been arrested. Strout said Mank is not accused of forcing sex on the girl.
In the course of his investigation, Sagadahoc County Detective Sgt. John Burne uncovered other sex crimes possibly committed by Mank involving girls in Cumberland County who are minors, said Strout. That information was given to the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department.
Cumberland County Detective Sgt. Jim Estabrook said Friday that his department’s investigation is just beginning, but that Mank is suspected of committing sex crimes with at least two underage girls in Cumberland County.
“He has not been charged with anything at this point in our county,” said Estabrook. “It is likely he will be in the very near future.”
Mank faces a March 13 court date for the charges in Sagadahoc County.
Strout asked that anyone with information about this case call Burne at 386-5827.
Filters and Jamming devices need to be placed on SEXUAL PREDATORS so that this doesn’t happen ever again.
BTW, I think the parents do share in the blame. How is it they didn’t have some clue that their 14-year-old daughter was being sexually abused for over an eight-month period? And Two other victims.. GAME OVER, Mr. Mank.
Parents should supervise what their children are doing, these young girls dressing provocative, some share naked pictures of themselves, include sexting, & yes boys doing the same thing, its the parents that give these children the “OUT” the ability to do these things, they buy their clothes, they buy the phones, they buy the laptops, they buy the ipad, etc, yes it is the parents responsibility, they should carry responsibility.
It is a parents job to monitor their kids activities for sure. That being said, The schools provide laptops to students in grades 7 & 8. How do you know that the kids aren’t doing it on that computer at school? Just saying.
school computer’s and laptops has locks on them and they as well r monitored the schools monitor them and parents can as well
I beg to differ. Perhaps some of the school laptops have locks and blocks, but the one my son brought home certainly didn’t. He could access literally anything from that laptop that I can access on mine. No difference
I used to work in a high school, kids find a way and filters do not always work.
It’s very easy to bypass the filters using a proxy server. It sounds complicated, but it’s not. Many middle schoolers know how to do it. Often you don’t even need a proxy and it’s as simple as changing the “http” of the blocked site to “https”
sicko, lock him up and throw the key away!!
Don’t you mean “lock” him up? He really is a sick sob and should serve a long sentence.
yes i did mean lock! I changed it! Sad part is he will probably do little to no jail time, be out and he will do it again!
But I thought facebook was all about good with all the articles generated by their PR machine (Suicide prevention, kidney transplant, etc.).
Deviant + Social Network = Social Deviant
I dont recall Facebook being mention’d in the article. Could have been Myspace, Gmail, AOL, Yahoo or any of more than a dozen other social networking sites.
You are correct it was not mentioned. Myspace is nonexistant, gmail is not social media it is email, AOL? What century are we in, Yahoo is also email.
My point. When you say social media and teenager, it IS facebook, but facebook has been lobbying the media to use “Social Media” for these type of negative stories.
yahoo, gmail and aol all have instant messaging. In fact, many sites do.
When I was 14, I knew that hanging out with older boys or men only could bring trouble. Don’t you think these girls and all our girls know this as well? I in no way condone this man stalking these under age girls but I feel these girls were old enough to know better.
I know of one case where a young man was sending pics of himself undressed starting with just a bare chest, then progressing from there to some guy in a chat room, from some place in the world , and paying him for it by depositing thousands into a pay pal account,the perp would then sell the pics online all over the world, when the young man complained that his parents were going to catch him,the guy rented a studio apartment for him in the neighborhood, mailed him a key and had a complete computer system set up in it with desk and chair and told him to tell his parents he was going to visit with some friends down the street,By the time the young man confessed to investigators and congress he was in his 20’s. This is big time business !
Misdemeanor?? Thats crazy!
If convicted, he will face a maximum sentence of 9 months in county jail and 10 years on the Maine sex offender registry.
Throw the book at him.