After publicity from child abuse charges, Bucks man now faces 195 sex crimes involving children

The alleged crimes, filling 14 single-spaced pages, are a study in sexual depravity and child abuse.

To prosecutor Jennifer Schorn, the charges filed Friday against unemployed Bucks County tattoo artist Walter Meyerle amount to "one of the largest child-abuse cases I've seen by one individual."

Bensalem Public Safety Director Fred Harran took it a rhetorical step further. "I'd like to see him in a room with SEAL Team Six for five minutes. Let them take care of it," he said, referring to the commandos who killed Osama bin Laden.

Meyerle, 34, of Falls Township, stands accused of 195 crimes - most felony sexual assaults - involving 14 children.

Prosecutors claim the attacks occurred over a 10-year period, involving victims ranging in age from 4 to 17. Two were boys. At least one girl said she had become pregnant and had an abortion.

Allegations against Meyerle were first reported to police as far back as 2003, court records show, yet no arrests were made.

The difference, Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler said Friday, is that some victims, once reluctant to prosecute, now have a sense of "strength in numbers."

They were emboldened, Heckler said, by reports in March that Meyerle had been arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl.

Knowing that Meyerle had been suspected of other assaults, authorities called a news conference to urge others to come forward.

In disturbing droves, that call was answered, authorities said Friday.

The result is a tale of alleged sexual opportunism, in which Meyerle is accused of molesting and having sex with children in Bristol, Bensalem, and other lower Bucks communities. Many were related to adults he knew or, in some cases, was dating.

Some were groomed by Meyerle because they came from unstable homes, their parents beset by substance abuse or other problems, Schorn said.

Sex offenders "prey upon some of our most vulnerable members of society," she said. "I believe that is why he has been able to get away with this for so long."

Small children were attracted by calculated kindnesses bestowed on them by Meyerle, Schorn said.

"The children saw someone who had, as one victim described it, 'some of the coolest things a boy could ever imagine' - a monster truck, a pet lizard," she said. With each victim, "he adapted what he needed to do to sexually abuse" them.

Schorn said charges involving two additional adult victims were being investigated.

In child sexual-assault cases, Heckler said, "it's not uncommon for an initial report to be made, and then for some reason for the adults to lose enthusiasm or fall by the wayside. For whatever reason, some of those people were not ready to proceed" against Meyerle.

That changed after reports of Meyerle's March 16 arrest on charges leveled by the 15-year-old's family. Others who had never come forward also surfaced with allegations, Heckler said.

"We are here primarily to say thank you," he said to reporters at a news conference after Meyerle's arraignment.

Heckler said he had not yet tallied the potential prison time Meyerle faces if convicted of all charges: "We stopped counting when we got to 1,000 years."

Meyerle, already jailed on the earlier charges, was ordered held on $5 million bail by District Judge Frank W. Peranteau. He faces multiple counts of rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, unlawful contact with minors, aggravated indecent assault, sexual assault, and statutory sexual assault, all felonies. He also faces dozens of misdemeanor charges.

Each of the 13 additional victims came forward independently, Schorn said, after reading or hearing of Meyerle's March arrest.

At that time, Meyerle bantered with reporters and proclaimed his innocence, saying he hoped to get an apology from police.

Friday morning, he shielded his face from cameras, speaking only when he profanely demanded that a TV cameraman be arrested for bumping into him.

Meyerle, who is married, has prior convictions for making harassing phone calls, domestic assault, drug possession, drunken driving, and disorderly conduct. But he had no record of sexual assault until being accused two months ago of repeated assaults on a Bristol Township girl, beginning when she was 14.

Meyerle knew the girl's family, and groomed her through a social-networking website and calls on a cellphone she was given for her birthday, according to an affidavit.

The girl told investigators that she and Meyerle had phone sex about 50 times while her parents were asleep and had sexual intercourse at least four times at his house. Last spring, the girl said, Meyerle illegally gave her a star tattoo on her pelvis in return for sex acts.

The girl's mother contacted police in February after discovering the tattoo and learning of the phone calls between Meyerle and her daughter.