CLEARFIELD, Pa. (GANT) – A DuBois man accused of taking inappropriate photos of a nine-year-old girl pleaded guilty Friday during sentencing court.
(This article was provided by our News Partner GantDaily.com.)
Darin Fredrick Acre, 56, was sentenced by Judge Paul E. Cherry to 15 days to two years less one day in the county jail with two years concurrent probation for produce/present/direct obscene performance, a misdemeanor.
He was ordered to have no unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18.
District Attorney Ryan Sayers noted that Acre had an assessment and was not declared a sexually violent predator.
Acre will still have to register with authorities under Megan’s Law and must complete sex offender counseling.
Cherry warned him that if he came back into court on any violation, he would not hesitate to send him to state prison.
Originally Acre was also charged with a second count of produce/present/direct obscene performance, corruption of minors and invasion of privacy.
Prior to sentencing, the victim’s father addressed the court explaining the impact of Acre’s actions on his family.
The family has to live knowing Acre is still nearby, the father read from a prepared statement. “Are you watching the kids in the pool or hot tub?”
He expressed his feelings of anger, disbelief and disgust at Acre.
“The amount of tears you have caused are immeasurable.”
The father explained that he thought of Acre as not just a neighbor, but a friend, a brother.
Citing Acre’s claims that he is an alcoholic and was drunk during the incidents, the father noted that one of the incidents happened just 54 minutes after Acre had gotten home from work.
“It may have been a drunk man’s actions but it was a sober man’s thoughts.”
He also expressed relief that Acre’s behavior didn’t escalate on one occasion due to someone arriving at the home, stopping him from further exploiting the child.
Proud of his daughter throughout “this terrible time,” he commented that while Acre can move on after this, “we can’t.”
While he spoke, his daughter cried and the rest of the family was visibly upset.
Acre’s attorney, Blair Hindman, stated that he had no prior criminal record and authorities didn’t find any child pornography on his phone or computer.
Cherry responded that Acre had actually deleted photos from his phone.
Acre himself addressed the victim and her family, apologizing and saying he was ashamed of what he had done.
“I was black out drunk,” he said. He admitted he was an alcoholic and said he has checked into a rehabilitation facility.
Cherry stated “this is sick” adding he was appalled at what he read in the affidavit and in other documents connected to the case.
“I am satisfied this was grooming behavior,” he pointed out because Acre started slowing by talking with her secretly, teaching her an obscene secret sign, moved on to taking photos, and then asking her to take off her clothes to pose for him, according to the affidavit.
“This beautiful girl is in tears today because of what you did.” He also said it was fortunate Acre was caught “before it became something far worse.”
“You can’t blame alcohol,” Cherry said.
According to the affidavit, in April 2021, the girl’s parents reported that Acre had taught their daughter an obscene gesture they flashed back and forth to each other. The girl did not understand what it meant.
The girl stated that he also had given her the “shhh” sign by putting his finger on his lips after using the gesture.
Later the victim told her parents about Acre taking photos of her at various times.
The parents checked their home security cameras and were able to find several times Acre took a photo of the girl with her leg kicked out. Once he held her leg up extra high. There was also footage of him making the gesture to her.
During the last encounter, Acre was taking photos and told her to turn around before he took another photo. Then he said something to her and she started to pull the back of her pants down. He said “there you go”, but before he could take the photo, a few friends arrived distracting the girl who ran off to see them.
Police obtained Acre’s cell phone but did not find the photos. After a lab did an analysis of the phone, they were able to find the pictures which had been deleted.
EDITOR’S NOTE 1: Extreme graphic details were not included due to the sexual nature of the crimes.
EDITOR’S NOTE 2: Several details were removed from this article to help protect the identity of the victims.
