TALES FROM THE CRIPPS
D.A.: COLWYN MAN WHO DRESSED AS CARTOON CHARACTERS FACES CHILD RAPE RAPS
MEDIA COURTHOUSE » Led from the Delaware County Courthouse in handcuffs Monday charged with counts of deviant sexual misconduct with children, Michael Cripps, 43, of Colwyn, was defiant with a middle finger raised to conceal his face.
“F--- you,” he said to reporters who questioned his costumed birthday party enterprise, M.C. Parties, in which Cripps advertised his services masquerading as various cartoon characters to entertain children for $65-an-hour.
Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan said Monday that they have not yet linked Cripps’ costume business to potential victims, but said that in addition to the five known accusers who have indicted Cripps, there may be more victims yet to come forward.
“We have grave concerns that there are many more victims, even though we’ve document five victims, we have concerns that there are many more out there that he’s exploited, that he’s victimized and that he’s sexually abused,” Whelan said.
Cripps was first on the radar for sexual misconduct with children back in 2013 when he was arrested and charged with a string of burglaries in Upper Darby involving thefts from storage lockers. He pleaded guilty to 11 counts of criminal trespass and two counts of receiving stolen property in 2014 and sentenced to 3-6 years in a state correctional facility.
“At that time he was being processed in our office for multiple burglaries, and there was insufficient evidence in the 2013 case at that time,” Whelan said of the alleged sexual contact with a minor prior to the charges filed Monday.
It wasn’t until Sept. 2017 that a tip from a Childline referral once again alleged Cripps of sexual abuse of a minor. Whelan said the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Unit interviewed a five-year-old at the Child Advocacy Center who detailed a series of involuntary sexual contact with Cripps.
Going back through instances in which children were under Cripps’ care, CID identified four additional victims who detailed a series of abuses with Cripps. He was charged with more than 120 counts involving rape and indecent assault of a child Monday.
A confidence man, Whelan said Cripps’ primary method in establishing his victims was through relationships with various women. Whelan said they would invite them into their homes to stay for a period of time and would provide “child care” while the single mothers would go to work.
According to one victim, Cripps would “always sleep with a boy in his bed when kids stayed overnight.”
Through the relationships with these unidentified partners, Cripps would allegedly build a system of trust with their children. One victim claimed that Cripps would rape him or perform oral sex on him “just about every day” between early 2009 and 2011 from the time the victim was 13 until the age of 16.
“His M.O. was innocent boys,” Whelan said. “He would establish a relationship with the mother and then sleep in a separate bedroom with the boys ... a mother, of course, complained about that and thought it was inappropriate behavior.”
Whelan said the mothers who were dating or involved with Cripps were not aware of his deviant sexual relationship with their children and other boys at home.
“If they did, they’re not articulating it, if they did, they’re not giving us information that is sufficient,” Whelan said. “Although a lot of them are in denial of it, I think one or two believed there was some concerning behavior.”
Cripps lived in at least 13 different addresses between 1998 and 2012 throughout Delaware County — Darby, East Lansdowne, Lansdowne, Upper Darby and Aldan – and at least two locations in Philadelphia and Avondale. His transient nature makes it difficult to pinpoint the exact locations of where the assaults took place during that period.
Whelan said it wasn’t clear in the active investigation if he’s meeting the single mothers through his costume company or through other means.
“He is reaching out to women one way or anyone through a chance meeting or some time of internet relationship, but he’s reaching out to women, vulnerable women typically, women who don’t have men in their lives, women who have small boys, and he’s befriending them in order to take sexual advances and criminally violate these little boys,” Whelan said.
His five accusers, who are now in their teens to early adulthood, allege their particular assaults occurred between 2008 and 2012 when they were between the ages of seven and 17.
The affidavit of probable cause alleges “Cripps would become angry” with the boys if they resisted sleeping in the same bed as him, with one boy engaging with a physical altercation with Cripps over a refused request.
His temper was evident Monday as he hurled insults and made vulgar gestures as he engaged the media scrum following his arraignment.
“These children knew they were being abused, they knew it was inappropriate behavior for him to have been touching them, fondling them and ultimately vicious sexual intercourse with them,” Whelan said. “When these kids started to resist he would show anger and emotion to try to suppress their resistance.”
On his still active Facebook page, Cripps has photographs posing with different children – one staging next to a shopping mall Santa Claus and another with a young boy dressed as Batman. One of Cripps’ profile photos is a stock image of the “thin blue line” American flag praising the Folcroft Police Department.
Whelan was scant on details of Cripps’ personal life beyond having a son, “which is questionable whether that is his child or not,” Whelan said.
Cripps’ relationship status on Facebook is listed as “divorced.”
On a post around Christmas when Cripps had visited the holiday installment at Rose Tree Park he’s seen holding a child by a cutout nutcracker. Cripps left cryptic statements in the comments regarding his tumultuous relationships at home.
CHILD » PAGE 9