PHILADELPHIA— A Cub Scout leader repeatedly raped his niece for four years after a child protection team found credible evidence he was abusing her, police said.
Thomas F. Novak, of Wallingford, who until Wednesday served as a Cub Scout den leader, was charged this week with 10 counts of rape plus indecent exposure and other crimes.
After his arrest, Novak told police he had assaulted the 10-year-old girl between 10 and 20 times at his home over the past four years, Nether Providence Township police said.
"Everybody's angry about that specific issue, including us," Nether Providence Detective Michael Irey said of the delay. "When it was reported this time, it was handled properly."
In 1999, the girl's cousin filed a complaint saying Novak had sexually assaulted the girl. Delaware County Children & Youth Services found the complaint was credible and referred it to a police agency, Irey said Wednesday.
The detective said he did not know which police agency handled the case, but said it was not Nether Providence.
Novak "said he was asked to take a polygraph by police who said detectives would pick him up. They never picked him up," Irey said.
Pam Hardy, director of the child protection agency's sex abuse center, said privacy laws prevent her from discussing the case.
Michael Galantino, a Delaware County assistant district attorney with the special victims unit, said he had not had time to review the case sufficiently and would discuss it with police on Thursday.
The arrest late Monday came after the girl disclosed the alleged rapes to the cousin who had reported the earlier complaint, Irey said. The girl lives within a few blocks of Novak and visited his home regularly.
Novak was being held on $100,000 bail. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer.
Police have no evidence that Novak, who is married with an 8-year-old son, abused any of the Cub Scouts, a group that serves first- through fifth-graders.
The Boy Scouts of America, which runs the Cub Scouts, had never received a complaint about Novak, according to Patrick Coviello, executive vice president of the local Cradle of Liberty Council. You can join Unsolved Mysteries and post your own mysteries or
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