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61-year-old Plum man accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl he met outside a bar in the area


61-year-old Plum man accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl he met outside a bar in the area

A 61-year-old Plum man is suspected of taking two underage girls he met outside a bar to his home and giving them marijuana before having sex with one of them.

According to Plum police, John Dale Vorous admitted to taking the girls, ages 14 and 15, to his home on Francis Road after they approached him outside the Center Tavern in Plum around midnight on June 22 and asked for a ride and a place to stay.

According to a criminal complaint, he admitted to giving both girls marijuana and having sex with the 14-year-old.

Plum police charged Vorous on Thursday with aggravated sexual assault, involuntary deviant sexual intercourse, unlawful contact with a minor, aggravated indecent assault and enticement of a minor, and minor enticement of a minor and indecent assault.

He was arraigned Thursday before District Judge Michael J. Doyle and released on bail, court records show. A preliminary hearing before Doyle is scheduled for Aug. 21.

Vorous’s attorney, Paul D. Zavarella, did not respond to a request for comment.

According to the complaint, an Allegheny County police detective who was interviewing the 14-year-old girl at UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh informed a Plum police detective of the alleged sexual assault on the evening of June 23.

The girl told the county detective that she and a 15-year-old friend walked to the Center Tavern, where a white man came out and got into his car. He drove up to the girls, asked if they had anywhere to go, and offered them a place to stay overnight. The girls got in his car and he took them to his home, according to the complaint.

The girl said the man gave them marijuana and cigarettes. She said she took off her clothes at his request and danced with him before he had sex with her. The girls spent the night at the man’s house, the indictment says.

Video footage from the bar shows the girls arriving in the parking lot and a man, later identified as Vorous, coming out. According to the complaint, the girls are seen approaching his car as it drives away and getting in.

In an interview with Plum police on July 21, the 15-year-old girl gave a similar account of events, saying she saw her friend having sex with Vorous. According to the complaint, she said he took her to a bus stop the next morning.

Police questioned Vorous outside his home on July 25, the complaint states. He denied being drunk on the night in question, police said.

Vorous showed police a photograph he had taken of the girls, which police used to identify the girls, the complaint states.

The complaint does not indicate whether Vorous knew the girls’ ages.

Brian C. Rittmeyer is a reporter for TribLive covering news in New Kensington, Arnold and Plum. Brian is a Pittsburgh native and a graduate of Penn State University’s Schreyer Honors College. He has been with the Trib since December 2000. Reach him at [email protected].

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