A former swim director and lifeguard at a community center in Massachusetts was found not guilty on sexual assault charges leveled at him by a 14-year-old girl.
The Worcester Telegram reports that Joshua D. Phillips, age 36, has been acquitted this week, with a judge finding him not guilty on five counts of child rape aggravated by age difference and one count of indecent assault and battery.
Phillips was accused of assaulting a 14-year-old girl between November of 2012 and January of 2013. Phillips was arrested and indicted in 2014.
He was a swim director and lifeguard at the Whitin Community Center in Northbridge, Massachusetts, according to the Telegram‘s coverage of his indictment.
The 14-year-old girl told her therapist in 2013 that she’d been sexually assaulted by her swim coach. Prosecutors pointed to Facebook communication between the two as further evidence. Phillips said in one message “I didn’t get enough earlier” and in another that “if he got caught, he’d go to jail,” per the Telegram report.
But Judge Janet Kenton-Walker tied her decision to “credibility,” expressing some doubt at the girl’s testimony and suggesting the girl showed “multiple symptoms of mental illness.” The judge also noted that there wasn’t sufficient evidence of violence or force to convict Phillips beyond a reasonable doubt.
Phillips would have faced a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted.
About time someone acknowledged mentally ill ppl are out there concocting tales.
In the UK just one lady accused 15 different men of rape . At least one served 2 year prison sentence & others were forced to spend high amounts of money that they could ill afford to hire lawyers .
Another man accused of rape who had the means went after one young lady via legal avenues & proved her claim was false . It turned out she was in fact very very mentally unstable & once confronted committed suicide .
We need to intervene before names become public & give the accused more non police veracity protection .
Confefve.
As much as I’d like to be mad I figure the judge knows a lot more about the case than I. If she finds him not guilty then so be it. I’m sure there is good reason.