‘Forgiving you is not even a thought.’ Man who groped child at campground in Snow Shoe is sentenced
A Huntingdon County man who groped a child at a campground in Snow Shoe was sentenced Tuesday to five years of probation.
Kirklyn Strauser, 23, was accused by state police at Rockview of groping the child in August 2014. She lambasted Strauser in a statement she read Tuesday, calling him a “coward” and saying “forgiving you is not even a thought.”
“I have tried everything to forget about you, but you’re like a tattoo. The touch, the voice, your sickening face leaves a permanent touch on my body and mind,” the girl said. “... It took me almost six years to even have the headspace to bring this nightmare up again. I blamed myself for years, pondering, ‘Why would he do that to me? Why would he choose me?’ ”
Strauser pleaded guilty in December to one felony count of indecent assault of someone younger than 13. Three felony counts of aggravated indecent assault and one misdemeanor count of indecent assault were dropped.
Strauser served about two months in the Centre County Correctional Facility before posting $25,000 bail. He declined an opportunity to make a statement before his sentence was handed down by Centre County Judge Brian Marshall.
“We both know what you tried to set out to do — to ruin me. To ruin an innocent child’s life,” the girl said. “But not me. Kirklyn James Strauser, I am not afraid of you and I am much stronger than you.”
