Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, December 15, 1994                   TAG: 9412150071
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

MAN TOOK INDECENT LIBERTIES WITH NIECE, 5

The unemployed house painter, whom the Roanoke Times & World-News has declined to identify to protect the identity of his niece, was sentenced to serve three years in prison, with five years suspended.

The girl's mother, the man's sister, left him to watch his niece in her car in October 1993 while she ran errands in Bedford.

While she was gone, the Roanoke man said he exposed his genitals to the 5-year-old and propositioned her.

The girl told her parents and police that her uncle made her perform oral sex on him.

The man admitted only exposing himself. Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Randy Krantz said prosecuting him for the more serious felony - sodomy, which can carry a life sentence - would have been difficult because the girl would have had to testify.

"It would have exposed the child to intense cross-examination, and the commonwealth weighed that heavily in its decision on how to charge" the man, Krantz said.