(Cameron M. Sallis/CORTLAND COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE)
Police arrested a city man on Friday for sexually abusing a girl 2018 — then added two more sex abuse charges after they determined he attacked two other children from 2013 to 2015, according to City and County police statements made today and Monday.
Cameron M. Sallis, 23, 67 Groton Ave. Apt. 3, is accused of sexually touching a girl younger than 13 over the course of four months, according to city police. Sallis abused a girl he knew between March 4 and July 31 in 2018, said Lt. Michael Strangeway.
City police were recently notified of the incidents and after an interview with Sallis at the Cortland Police station, officers arrested him for felony, first-degree sexual abuse, said Strangeway. The Sheriff’s Office received a report of sex abuse against Sallis on Oct. 5, according to that agency.
After Sallis’ first arrest Friday, the Cortland County Sheriff’s Office pressed two additional felonies against him of first-degree course of sexual conduct against a child, according to police. Sallis abused two separate children, both of whom he knew, between 2013 and 2015, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
“The investigation revealed that the defendant had subjected two victims to inappropriate contact on several occasions over several years,” according to the Sheriff’s Office news release sent this afternoon. The attacks occurred in the Village of Homer and in the Town of Homer, police said.
Sallis was remanded at arraignment to the Cortland County Correctional Facility on $1,250 cash bail or $2,500 bond. Sallis is scheduled to next appear today in Homer Town Court and at 9 a.m. Wednesday in Cortland City Court.
Most children who are sexually abused — as many as 93% percent — know their abuser, according to Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network. One in nine girls are sexually abused in the U.S., according to RAINN statistics.
(COURTESY OF RAINN)
The warning signs that a child is being abused are often hard to spot, but they include regressing to bedwetting and thumbsucking, refusal to remove clothes to bathe or excessive bathing and advanced sexual knowledge or behavior, notes RAINN. The most important warning signs are sudden changes in behavior.
If you suspect a child is being abused, call 911, the City police at 753-3001 or the Sheriff’s Office at 758-5599.
For more information about child sexual abuse, how to talk to children about it and free counseling, visit RAINN.org or contact their hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673).
