Man, 62, facing sexual assault charges
By Nick Hiltunen
Published in News on March 3, 2010 1:46 PM
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Henry Allen Sills
A Goldsboro man faces felony charges for four alleged statutory sex offenses with a 14-year-old Pender County boy, authorities said.
Henry Allen Sills, 62, of Vance Drive, was initially jailed under an $800,000 bond after being arrested on Jan. 28, Wayne County Sheriff's Office records show.
Sills remains in jail in Pender County, where authorities have charged him with an additional two counts of statutory sex offense and two counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor, Wayne County Sheriff's Office Detective Sgt. Tammy Odom said.
Pender County then added $200,000 to Sills' bond, pushing the total to $1 million.
Pender County authorities charged Sills with the alleged offenses in that county, Odom said, and began interviewing Sills and the alleged victim's family. During the course of that investigation, detectives discovered that some of the alleged incidents allegedly happened in Wayne County, she said.
"They had custody of him first," Sgt. Odom said. "When we got our warrants, we went to Pender County, picked him up and brought him back here and took him before a magistrate."
Sills reportedly knew the 14-year-old's family. Both families would visit each other at their homes, Odom said.
"He (Sills) would go there and visit with the family, and they would come here," the detective said.
Investigation into the allegations began when the 14-year-old boy's mother filed a complaint, authorities said.
Pender County Sheriff's Office criminal investigations spokesman Scott Lawson was not available for comment this morning.
According to state law, statutory sex offense is a Class B1 felony. A person is guilty of a statutory sex offense if "the defendant engages in ... a sexual act with another person who is 13, 14 or 15 years old and the defendant is at least six years older than the person" excluding married couples.