A Falls Township man who struck a deal with prosecutors on charges of raping a teenager will get house arrest and probation for his crimes.
Navanil Patel, 53, was sentenced this week to up to two years house arrest and 10 years probation after the victim, who is 17-years-old, requested that there not be a trial.
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Judge Jeffery Finley said the sentence was “very difficult to accept,” but he respected the request, the Doylestown Intelligencer Newspaper reported.
According to police, Patel sexually abused the 17-year-old girl since she was 15-years-old. The abuse is alleged to have happened every week until she reported it to police last year.
The girl, who was known to the man previously, told staff from Bucks County Children and Youth all the unwanted sexual encounters, which later evolved into rape, happened in a Fairless Hills home. The girl said when she threatened to tell but didn’t, since the suspect “started doing more things to her,” according to an affidavit of probable cause. If she would yell out or resist, the 52-year-old mistreated her family members, police said.
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“All of [the suspect’s] sexual acts were perpetrated on [the girl] against her will,” Detective Catherine Coffman wrote in a court filing.
The victim also said the man physically abused her. One incident that happened when she was about 10-years-old involving the suspect stripping her clothing off and beating her with a belt. Court papers say the girl was kept home from school for a week until her wounds healed.
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The suspect’s world began to crumble on a recent weekend when the girl said she resisted his advances, police said. When she said she was planning to report the rape and abuse, the man grabbed a knife and threatened to slit his wrists, according to court paperwork.
Patel was arrested in October.
