A Lebanon woman faces multiple charges involving the alleged sexual abuse of two children.
Lebanon city police on Oct. 29 filed 27 separate charges against 47-year-old Katherine Longo for incidents that occurred over several years, according to a press release issued Friday by the District Attorney’s office.
Charges against Longo include rape of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, aggravated indecent assault of a child, endangering the welfare of children by a parent or guardian, incest with a minor, and corruption of minors.
“All charges stem from allegations (that Longo) sexually assaulted two minor children in her household over a period of years, the release states.
City police opened an investigation after receiving an allegation of child abuse through a ChildLine referral. (ChildLine is part of a mandated statewide child protective services program designed to accept child abuse referrals and general child well-being concerns, and transmit the information quickly to the appropriate investigating agency, according to the state Department of Human Services website.)
According to the release, police sent the children for a forensic interview, during which both children made graphic disclosures of years-long sexual abuse. The release did not specify the current age of the alleged victims, nor when the alleged abuse was said to have occurred.
The charges involve two children, a boy and a girl, both of whom provided graphic descriptions of various acts Longo performed on them or forced them to perform on her as well as on each other. According to the release, Longo “showed pornography (to the children) as a demonstrative aid of her expectations.”
The boy told investigators the rapes and molestations began when he was 6 years old and “escalated as he grew older and matured.” The girl said the rapes and molestations began when she was 5.
“The allegations put forth by the Victims are heinous,” District Attorney Pier Hess Graf said in a statement. “I cannot fathom how a set of facts and string of sexual assaults could be more evil, more disgusting, and more worthy of a Defendant’s rotting in prison. Any crime of child abuse is horrible but to rape and molest and prey upon children in her own home – this Defendant is the lowest of the low.”
Longo is being held in jail pending the disposition of the charges against her. According to her docket, Magisterial District Judge Aurelis Figueroa ordered her held without bail.
A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Nov. 7 before Magisterial District Judge Maria Dissinger.
Anyone with information on the case should contact the Detective Bureau at 717-228-4403 or the Lebanon City Police Department at 717-272-6611.
Editor’s note: A press release from the Lebanon County District Attorney’s office on the same day reported on charges against Christopher and Kelly Longo, who were accused of the ongoing sexual abuse of three children. Although the defendants share surnames, no immediate connection between the two cases was identified in the press releases. A spokesperson for the District Attorney could not immediately be reached for comment on the two cases.
Read More: Husband and wife arrested for sexually assaulting children over 17-year period
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