A Lewiston man, wearing only a mask, allegedly forced his way into a Raymond home and attempted to sexually assault a 10-year-old boy last Friday morning.
According to Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion, Derrick Coffin, 23, of 23 Wakefield Street in Lewiston is being held on $100,000 bail and is charged with burglary and gross sexual assault.
Coffin is accused of donning a crude mask and stripping naked before knocking on the door of a River Road home. He hid off to the side of the door and, when the boy opened it, forced his way inside and grabbed the boy by the neck.
The 14-year-old sister, hearing her brother’s screams for help, rushed from an upstairs room. Coffin heard her door open and by the time she was downstairs he had fled the home, escaping into the woods on foot.
At Tuesday’s press conference, Sheriff Dion reminded children to heed the message taught by their school officers.
“Stranger danger is real,” Dion said. “If your mom or dad isn’t home then you’re not home, don’t answer the door, because you don’t know who’s on the other side.”
Sheriff’s deputies and a K-9 unit tracked Coffin for several hours on Friday through the quiet residential community until the scent was lost in the area of Martin Heights in Raymond.
The boy told deputies that Coffin, who has been delivering Poland Spring water for Great Spring Water of America in Gray, had stopped at the house earlier that morning, asking for directions.
Coffin later admitted to detectives that he returned to the home after making his delivery because he thought the boy was alone.
After parking his truck nearby, Coffin said he put on a mask he had made by slitting eye and mouth holes in a towel, stripped, and forced his way into the home at 10 a.m.
Coffin was scared away from the home no more than a minute after his forced entry, according to Captain Frank Lyons.
And although Dion said that the boy “didn’t suffer any significant physical injury” he added that he did not want to minimize the “severe trauma to him and his family in terms of the sexual nature of the assault.”
With the information Lieutenant Donald Foss, who headed up the investigation, received from the boy, coupled with the cooperation of Great Spring Water of America in Gray and the Lewiston Police Department, he was able to gather the necessary evidence to bring Coffin in for questioning.
Prints and DNA samples were taken from the victim’s home and deputies found the towel mask stashed in a dumpster behind a Naples shopping center. Evidence was also obtained from a Poland Spring vehicle in Gray.
Foss and Detective Josh Potvin interrogated Coffin Sunday afternoon at the Law Enforcement Center in Portland where he was subsequently arrested.
“The biggest break in this case that I found was the ability of the victim to precisely give us details of the events that occurred,” Foss said during the press conference.
And Lyons, in a phone interview, agreed, calling the 10-year-old “a smart little boy.”
“It was because of the information he gave us,” Lyons said, “that we were able to track down the suspect and make the arrest.”
Coffin has no criminal record though the department is looking into an unconfirmed previous assault conviction.
Deputies are conducting an investigation into similar unsolved sexual assaults to determine if they are related to this case. One assault they will be examining is the Sebago rape that occurred July 6.
Sheriff Dion commended his deputies for their “exceptional work.”
Dion also cautioned parents to talk with their children.
“We’ve got to remind our kids the world isn’t as safe as we wish it were,” he said.
Derrick Coffin, 23, of 23 Wakefield Street in Lewiston was arrested Sunday for burglary and gross sexual assault. Coffin forcibly entered a home in Raymond last Friday, wearing only a mask, and attempted to assault a 10-year-old boy. Send questions/comments to the editors.
