Children's abuse accounts read in tattoo artist's trial in Bucks

Tattoo artist Walter Meyerle threatened to kill or hurt some of the 15 children he is charged with sexually abusing or their relatives, according to accounts presented Tuesday in the second day of his trial in Bucks County Court.

He plied some of his alleged victims with beer, drugs, and offers of tattoos to befriend them and keep them around, while at other times threatening to commit suicide, according to the accounts presented by Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Schorn.

Meyerle, 35, of Falls Township, is charged with about 200 sex crimes against the children, ages 4 to 17, starting about 1998.

With the agreement of Meyerle's attorneys, the accounts of the children were read into the record by Schorn, allowing the children to avoid publicly testifying.

In one of the earliest cases, Meyerle used a video game to keep a young girl from telling anyone about the alleged attacks, according to the girl's account to police.

According to her account:

The attacks started when the girl was 4. She was living with her mother and half-sister in the Top of the Ridge trailer park in Bensalem, and Meyerle would party with her mother. Her mother allowed her to sleep at Meyerle's home, and there often were other girls and boys there.

One night, the girl was awakened by Meyerle's molesting her. Over five years, he sexually assaulted her about 50 to 60 times, she said.

He showed the girl pornography on his computer and the video game Grand Theft Auto 2, in which a character killed a prostitute and took her money. She said she was afraid Meyerle would kill her, too.

The attacks ended when she was 9. A friend persuaded her to tell her mother, who reported the situation to Bensalem police. But the detective failed to follow up that case or three others, including alleged assaults of the girl's half-sister and cousin, according to the account of Bensalem Detective Chris McMullin, one of the officers investigating Meyerle since last year.

The fourth case involved another 4-year-old girl who was assaulted about 10 times while Meyerle dated her mother and lived with them in Creekside Apartments, according to their accounts.

The mother originally reported the alleged assaults in 1998, but she declined to proceed with the case, according to McMullin's account. The girl, having nightmares and flashbacks, declined to be interviewed, but eventually disclosed the abuse in an e-mail, according to the detective's account.

The prosecution has entered the accounts of 15 alleged victims, three mothers, and four police officers in the nonjury trial before Judge Diane E. Gibbons in Doylestown. The alleged victims' names were presented in court but are withheld by The Inquirer.

Meyerle's two court-appointed lawyers have stipulated that the accounts accurately represent the witnesses' testimony but not the factual accuracy of events. The defense retains the right to challenge the accounts during the trial and on appeal.

Meyerle is charged with 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.

Charges of plotting to escape from the county prison were severed from this trial.

Meyerle has been in prison since March 2011, when he was charged with sexual assault of a Bristol Township girl. After those charges, the other alleged victims came forward or were contacted by police.

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