Man accused of raping girl, 13, said he was just ‘teaching her about sex,’ police say
An Oklahoma man accused of raping a 13-year-old girl reportedly said he was just “teaching her about sex.”
Michael Edward James, 45, of Goltry, Okla., is charged with first-degree rape of a victim under age 14, two counts of rape by instrumentation and three counts of lewd molestation, reports News 4 in Oklahoma City.
Another adult who did not report James when the girl told her about the alleged abuse has been also been charged.
Heather Jean Sharp, 36, was charged last week with permitting an adult male to engage and participate in sex with a 13-year-old girl, according to the Enid News & Eagle.
Sharp is James’ common-law wife, the Alva Review-Courier reported.
Court records indicate a school counselor was the first to report allegations of sexual abuse to Alfalfa County Sheriff Rick Wallace and a child welfare worker. The district attorney joined the investigation, the Review-Courier reports.
The teenager told authorities that James, who lives with her family, had sexually abused her for years and had raped her. A medical examination revealed signs of sexual abuse, court documents say.
Sharp told investigators of an incident in July when she saw the teenager come out of a bedroom with James. The girl told Sharp that James had sexually abused her.
James allegedly told Sharp he was “teaching her about sex.”
There had been an earlier incident, too. Sharp said she caught James on top of the girl, sexually abusing her. He told Sharp he was “teaching her about what boys might do,” Sharp told investigators.
She suspected James was having sex with the girl. But because he had nowhere else to go and he did “things for her,” Sharp let him stay, the Enid newspaper reported.
Sharp had previously been charged with felony child neglect on Nov. 15 over an incident in which she allegedly saw an 8-year-old girl, who also lives in the house, being abused by another boy.
She reportedly found the two in a bedroom and saw the boy putting his hands down the girl’s pants, investigators said. Sharp said she told him to stop and get out, but she did not report the incident to police.
Bond was set at $60,000 for James, who is still in jail and due in court on Dec. 6, the Review-Courier reported. Sharp, released on a $1,000 bond, is due in court on the same day.
This story was originally published November 29, 2017 at 11:59 AM with the headline "Man accused of raping girl, 13, said he was just ‘teaching her about sex,’ police say."