An Anson man will serve four years in prison and 12 years on probation after pleading guilty earlier this month to three charges of unlawful sexual contact with children under the age of 12, according to court records.
Phillip Dickey, 74, was sentenced March 2 to serve 10 years in prison, with all but four years suspended, after pleading guilty to the three charges. He was also sentenced to 12 years probation following release.
Two charges of gross sexual assault were dismissed as part of a plea deal, according to Somerset County District Attorney Maeghan Maloney, who said the bargain was made in part to spare the young victims from having to testify in court.
“He will be supervised for the rest of his life for certain,” Maloney said, adding that Dickey is older and in poor health. “He may be in custody for the rest of his life.”
The victims were all under the age of 12 when the assaults took place.
Dickey was arrested in October after a teenage girl learned that a younger girl for whom she babysat had been assaulted by him, authorities said. The girl and her sister also reported having been assaulted by Dickey in 2008 and 2009 while their grandmother was in a relationship with him, according to court records.
The younger girl, a neighbor of Dickey’s in Anson, reported the abuse to her mother last year after seeing a video at school about body safety that prompted her to tell her parents.
In December, a Somerset County grand jury indicted Dickey on the unlawful sexual contact charges as well as the gross sexual assault charges.
“The victims are young and they did not want to testify,” Maloney said. “They agreed to this outcome and it allows for them to be protected and the community to be protected.”
Rachel Ohm — 612-2368
Twitter: @rachel_ohm
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