CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune
By Liam Ford
Chicago Tribune
A church usher sexually abused a 7-year-old girl attending a summer youth event at the Back of the Yards church where the man works, then was arrested when the girl told her older stepsister, who told the girl’s mother, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Richard K. Roberts, 51, was arrested Sunday at the Southwest Church of Christ, 1359 W. 51st St., after the girl’s mother went to the church, and the 7-year-old and the other children she had told about the abuse at the time pointed out Roberts as the man who had abused her, prosecutors said.
Roberts, who is charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse, was ordered held in lieu of $50,000 bail by Judge Laura Sullivan on Wednesday afternoon. Prosecutors did not give a specific date for the abuse.
Sometime between May 31 and Sunday, the girl went to a children’s event at the church along with her brother, 12, his friend, also 12, and the siblings’ cousin, 11, said Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Kim Przekota. Roberts — an usher and a part-time employee — had gone through the neighborhood, knocking on doors to invite children to the event, prosecutors said.
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