Accused Child Rapist Waives Hearing

A Lansdale teenager charged with 33 criminal offenses — including 28 felonies — involving the alleged statutory rape and indecent assault of a teenage girl that began when she was eight or nine years old, and he was 12 years old, in June 2006, waived his hearing last week in Blue Bell District Court.

Dunigan IV now heads to trial at Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas.

The waiving of a preliminary hearing before District Judge Robert Sobeck meant the alleged victim did not need to testify, according to Bradley Schlegel of The Reporter. Dunigan IV was represented at the preliminary hearing by attorney Robert Adshead.

At the hearing Thursday, the prosecution will not seek, at present, a mandatory 5 to 10 years in state prison, according to the article.

Timothy Patrick Dunigan IV, 19, of the 700 block of Columbia Avenue, is charged with the following offenses, allegedly committed between 2006 and October 2012:

• Four felony counts of rape of a child
• Four felony counts of rape - threat of forcible compulsion
• Four felony counts of statutory sexual assault
• Four felony counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child
• Four felony counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse - threat of forcible compulsion
• Four felony counts of sexual assault
• Four felony counts of aggravated indecent sexual assault of a child
• Four misdemeanor counts of indecent assault on a person less than 13 years old
• One misdemeanor count of terroristic threats

Dunigan IV was arraigned Nov. 23 before District Judge Harold Borek. Bail was set at 10 percent of $50,000 and $5,000 cash was posted by a relative on Nov. 23, according to court records.

According to Matt Coughlin of The Intelligencer, the victim was allegedly molested when she was eight or nine. She filed a report with police this month.

According to court documents, the alleged victim is now 15 years old. She told police she was forced to perform oral sex on Dunigan, according to documents.

According to the affidavit, Dunigan allegedly threatened to break both of the girl's arms so she couldn't fight back. Dunigan allegedly told her the assaults would get worse if she stopped the alleged trysts.

According to the article, Dunigan was interviewed by police and admitted playing doctor with the girl. The assaults began when Dunigan IV was a juvenile, according to the article.

At the time of his arrest, Dunigan IV retained child advocate attorney Ethan O'Shea of the law firm Hamburg, Rubin, Mullin, Maxwell & Lupin in Upper Gwynedd.

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