Man jailed for indecent contact with teen girl at Green Lane Park

A western Pennsylvania man is on his way to jail after he admitted to having indecent contact with a 15-year-old girl at a park in Upper Frederick.

Douglas M. Gilghrist, 44, of New Castle, Lawrence County, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 3-to-9-months in the county jail after he pleaded guilty to charges of unlawful contact or communication with a minor and indecent assault in connection with an August 2017 incident in Green Lane Park in Upper Frederick.

Judge Steven C. Tolliver also ordered Gilghrist to complete three years’ probation following parole, meaning Gilghrist will be under court supervision for nearly four years.

The judge added Gilghrist must participate in a community-based sex offender treatment program while on parole and probation and must select a support person to be part of that treatment. Gilghrist also must initiate enrolling in sex offender counseling programs while in the jail, the judge said.

The judge said Gilghrist also must submit to a “full disclosure polygraph examination” and undergo regularly scheduled polygraph exams during the first two years of the probationary period.

“Further, there will be restricted and monitored access to the Internet with no access to social networking sites,” Tolliver wrote in the sentencing order.

Gilghrist is prohibited from having contact with the victim or her family. The judge added the no contact order remains in effect even after the girl attains the age of majority.

Gilghrist also faces a requirement to report his address to state police for 25 years.

An investigation began on Aug. 1, 2017, when the 15-year-old girl, accompanied by her guardian, went to state police at Skippack to report she was sexually assaulted by Gilghrist in Green Lane Park in the 2100 block of Snyder Road in Upper Frederick.

Gilghrist, according to a criminal complaint filed by state police Trooper Matthew Taubenberger, went to the victim’s home, picked her up and drove to the park.

“Prior to picking up the victim at her residence, Gilghrist asked the victim if her parents would be home. Gilghrist informed the victim that, due to his age, Gilghrist did not think the victim’s parents would allow him to pick her up,” Taubenberger alleged in the arrest affidavit.

Once they were on the park grounds, Gilghrist and the girl walked to a secluded picnic table where Gilghrist touched the girl inappropriately, exposed his penis to her and forced the girl to have indecent contact with him, according to the criminal complaint. The girl told police that Gilghrist committed the acts without her consent.

During the incident, the girl ran from the picnic table when she heard someone else approaching the area and Gilghrist left the park without the victim, court documents indicate. The victim left her purse in Gilghrist’s car and in a later text message Gilghrist promised to mail the purse to the girl.

On Aug. 4, the victim received a package in the mail and the sender was traced to Gilghrist’s New Castle address, court documents indicate.

The investigation determined Gilghrist and the girl had been in cellphone contact via a dating app and began communicating in June 2017 and during those communications Gilghrist asked the girl to send him nude photos, according to the criminal complaint.

While using the dating app, the girl, although she was 15 years old, told Gilghrist that she was 17 years old and that she would turn 18 in September 2017, according to court papers.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Beeson. Gilghrist was represented by defense lawyer Stephen Geday.