ALFRED — An Old Orchard Beach man arrested for sexual abuse of a minor allegedly met his teenage victim on an online App called Whisper.
Jeremy Buckley, 40, of Old Orchard Beach, was indicted this week at York County Superior Court on a charge of sexual abuse of a minor, a Class C crime. An indictment is a finding that enough evidence exists to move forward with prosecution.
He was arrested on Feb. 8 on the charge related to an incident that allegedly happened during the summer of 2015, according to a police affidavit by Detective Corporal Brady Coulombe of the Old Orchard Beach Police Department. He was released on $10,000 bail on Feb. 13.
Buckley is a registered sex offender who was previously convicted of 10 counts of sexual abuse to a minor. He has a history of engaging in suspicious activity with girls around 16 years of age, said Coulombe in the affidavit.
In November, a woman called the police saying that her 18-year-old daughter had received a threatening text message from Buckley, the young woman’s ex-boyfriend.
The 18-year-old woman told police that Buckley had broken up with her three months prior and they had begun a relationship when she was 15-year-old. She told police she met him online through an app called Whisper, through which people can communicate anonymously.
The woman said she met Buckley in person about a month after they started talking online, and the then 15-year-old began a relationship with him. The two began their relationship by meeting at playgrounds in Old Orchard Beach.
She said when she was 16, he asked her if she would be his girlfriend, and the two would spend time at his house when his wife wasn’t home, and continued to meet up at playgrounds otherwise.
The woman said she first had intercourse with Buckley when she had 16, but engaged in other sexual activity prior.
On Oct. 28, 2018, the woman shared a post on Facebook about her relationship with Buckley. She said she was 15 when she started dating him and at first she thought he was in his 20s, living with his sister and nephew, but he was really in his late 30s living with his wife and son.
The woman said on the post that she wanted to warn others about Buckley because she heard he had asked a high school girl for her contact information.
Shortly after she posted on Facebook, she received a text from Buckley warning her “I told you what would happen if you did something like that,” and wishing her good luck picking up the pieces after he was done.
The woman told police that in addition to his age and marital status, Buckley also lied about his name.
Whisper is a social media community through which people communicate without identities and profiles, according to information on the App’s website. According to the website, parents can put enable restrictions preventing their children from accessing Whisper.
Buckley is scheduled to appear at York County Superior Court for a disposition hearing on July 11.
— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be reached at 780-9015 or by email at egotthelf@journaltribune.com.
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