SCRANTON — A 44-year-old Pittston man will spend the next few years in a state prison for sexually assaulting a teenage girl in Scranton.
Arthur Webb, 175 Panama St., was sentenced Wednesday by Lackawanna County Judge Vito Geroulo to between three and eight years in prison.
After his release from prison, Webb faces lifetime registration as a sex offender under the Adam Walsh Act.
Webb, however, was not deemed a sexually violent predator.
Scranton police charged Webb on March 13 with having sexual contact with a 15-year-old girl between April and June 2018. Webb was 42 years old at the time.
The Times-Tribune does not identify victims of sexual assault.
The victim’s father told Geroulo on Wednesday that Webb’s actions destroyed his daughter’s ability to trust.
Geroulo puzzled on the circumstances, noting that Webb is a father.
“You have a 16-year-old daughter yourself,” Geroulo said.
Police also discovered explicit conversations between the two on the victim’s cellphone.
Authorities initially arrested Webb on charges of statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault of a person less than 16 and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a person less than 16.
Webb pleaded guilty to a first-degree felony charge of statutory sexual assault Aug. 9.
Webb’s attorney, William Thompson, said that his client is his family’s sole bread-winner and has no criminal record.
Thompson asked Geroulo for a lenient sentence and noted he has been jailed for the last eight months.
“His time in the prison has had a significant impact on him,” Thompson said.
Geroulo disagreed and imposed a strict penalty in the hopes of deterring others from committing the same crime.
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