NORRISTOWN >> A Lansdale man showed no emotion as a Montgomery County jury convicted him of raping a 5-year-old girl while she visited his family’s residence.
Samuel Benjamin Arthur, 43, who was living on the 300 block of York Avenue at the time of his arrest by Lansdale police in March 2013, was convicted Wednesday of charges of rape of a child, aggravated indecent assault of a child, indecent assault, endangering the welfare of a child, corruption of a minor and terroristic threats in connection with incidents that occurred between September 2011 and January 2012 while the victim was visiting his home.
The jury of eight women and four men deliberated about 31/2 hours before reaching a verdict. Arthur, who was supported in court by his wife, appeared stone-faced as court clerk Monica Pokorny polled each juror individually as to their guilty verdict.
Judge Garrett D. Page revoked Arthur’s bail at the request of Assistant District Attorney Sophia Polites and Arthur was taken into custody by sheriff’s deputies to await sentencing.
“They lied on me,” Arthur said when asked for a reaction to the verdict as he was led from the courtroom in handcuffs.
Arthur, a native of Ghana but a U.S. citizen since 2001 who is married and has several children, potentially faces decades in prison on the charges.
“The commonwealth is satisfied with the verdict. It was very clear the jury took its time,” Polites said afterward. “In the fall of 2011 the victim, who was approximately five years old at the time, was staying at his house and he was a caretaker and he raped her frequently while she remained in that house.”
Arthur did not testify during the trial and no witnesses were called by the defense. Arthur denied the allegations when questioned by detectives, according to testimony.
Testimony revealed the allegations surfaced in February 2013 after the girl was found acting sexually inappropriate in the presence of a childhood friend and the friend’s parent notified the victim’s parents. The girl then told her father and her mother that she had been sexually assaulted by Arthur 11/2 years earlier while she visited the Arthur home for brief periods of time.
When the girl was interviewed by authorities at the Mission Kids Child Advocacy Center she claimed Arthur “did some bad stuff to me” on about five occasions and that Arthur told her that she should not tell anyone about the incidents and that it was “their secret,” according to the arrest affidavit filed by Lansdale Detective Adrienne Gori. Jurors viewed a videotape of the child’s interview during the trial.
The girl claimed Arthur also threatened that he would kill her if she told anyone, according to testimony.
A doctor who examined the girl in February 2013 testified the girl exhibited no physical signs of trauma but added that is not uncommon in child abuse cases in which there is delayed reporting of assaults. He added that based on the child’s statements to her parents and to authorities and on her sexually inappropriate behavior with a childhood friend, that he concluded that she was a victim of sexual abuse.
But defense lawyer William Reilly suggested the girl saw adult pornography while visiting Arthur’s home and that her inappropriate behavior mimicked the pornography and that she created a “fictitious story” about Arthur.
“She was placing herself in the pornography that she saw. That’s the only thing that makes sense,” Reilly suggested, arguing the girl believes she was sexually assaulted based on the pornography she viewed. “That’s become reality to her. She sees pornography. That’s what causes her to act out.”
Reilly argued there was no evidence to corroborate the girl’s “story,” no DNA and no medical evidence of an assault.
Testimony revealed that based upon the girl’s claims that there was a camera and computer in Arthur’s bedroom, detectives seized those items. Detectives found nothing of evidentiary value from the camera or computer equipment, testimony revealed.
Detectives also legally recorded a conversation that the girl’s father had with Arthur after the allegations came to light.
“They tried to trick (Arthur) into confessing. He maintained his innocence,” Reilly argued to the jury.
But Polites argued the girl had no motivation to lie and that the words she used to describe the alleged assaults were childlike, not something gleaned from watching adult pornography.
“She remembers what it felt like. He talked to her about secrets and he threatened her. She didn’t learn that from adult pornography. She learned that from the defendant,” Polites argued. “There’s no reason for her to make this up.”
Previously, Arthur’s lawyers revealed that at the time of his arrest he was choir director at a church in Burlington, N.J., and that he had been working at an organization in Northeast Philadelphia that supports physically and developmentally disabled children before being fired as a result of his arrest.
