{"id":220223,"date":"2026-07-23T20:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T20:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/220223\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T20:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T20:04:10","slug":"sex-offender-accused-of-assaulting-child-at-south-lebanon-store-learns-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/220223\/","title":{"rendered":"Sex offender accused of assaulting child at South Lebanon store learns sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sex offender accused of assaulting child at South Lebanon store learns sentence<\/p>\n

\"MatthewSOUTH LEBANON, Ohio \u2014<\/p>\n

A man accused of sexually assaulting a child at a South Lebanon store took a plea deal and learned his sentence on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Robert DeWeese, a 37-year-old man with a long history of sexual offenses, was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Thursday and will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n

DeWeese was accused of following a 6-year-old girl and her mother into a Five Below store in South Lebanon. Investigators said he sexually assaulted the child in a family restroom. <\/p>\n

Investigators said the child’s mother briefly left her daughter in a locked restroom to grab a clean pair of pants, instructing her to open the door only upon hearing their special knock. Prosecutors said that DeWeese listened, repeated the knock and then sexually assaulted the child.<\/p>\n

Investigators noted that the girl scared DeWeese off by screaming, using a lion’s roar, which was a technique she learned in Scouts.<\/p>\n

According to the Warren County Prosecutor\u2019s Office, DeWeese\u2019s conduct in prison could determine if an additional five and a half years are added to his sentence.<\/p>\n

DeWeese pleaded guilty to rape, kidnapping with sexual motivation, gross sexual imposition and abduction.<\/p>\n

Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell issued a statement<\/a> after the ruling and also praised the child\u2019s mother for taking extra precautions to protect her child.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the course of this case, I’ve also heard public criticism of her mother, which is completely unfair. People should remember that this mother was simply trying to care for her child in a stressful situation that many parents have found themselves in. She took extra precautions to safeguard her. It’s easy to second-guess someone’s decisions after the fact, but the blame doesn’t belong with the girl\u2019s mother. It belongs entirely with a serial sexual predator who, fortunately due to this little girl\u2019s incredible courage, will spend the next 30-35 \u00bd years behind bars,\u201d Fornshell said.<\/p>\n

DeWeese will also be required to pay restitution to the victim\u2019s family for medical expenses and counseling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sex offender accused of assaulting child at South Lebanon store learns sentence SOUTH LEBANON, Ohio \u2014 A man…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[32],"tags":[63457,63456,93,46240,19143],"class_list":["post-220223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lebanon","tag-city-manager","tag-duck-creek-floodgate","tag-lebanon","tag-mechanical-malfunction","tag-wlwt"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116971088638297647","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}