BEDFORD – A Bedford man faces three counts of child molesting. Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department deputies arrested 41-year-old Robert Ping.
According to a probable cause affidavit, on March 8, 2021, a woman requested to speak to a detective about an incident involving her 12-year-old daughter.
The woman claimed that Ping had touched her daughter in a sexual manner. The alleged incidents happened approximately four years earlier, when the girl was only 8-years-old.
The girl told her mother that on a night when Ping was babysitting the girl, he touched her private parts, rubbed his body parts on her and made her touch his private parts.
The girl was given a forensic interview at Suzie’s Place, a child advocate service in Bloomington. The child, who was visibly upset, said the incidents have haunted her and she had to tell someone.
After the first incident of Ping touching her, she told her father “but he didn’t believe her” because she was young, but now believes her.
After several more incidents, she finally told her mother, who believed her and took action with the police.
The victim told investigators Ping was a “nice guy” and used to watch her and her siblings but he “really wasn’t a nice guy” and she remembered the events that Ping did like they happened yesterday.
Police spoke to Ping and he denied the allegations.
Police say this is not the first time Ping has been accused of inappropriate contact with a child. There was a report filed with the Department of Child Services on July 8, 2014 reporting Ping had inappropriately touched a then 6-year-old child. During the investigation the caseworker reported the child’s parents did not believe the incident happened and the child said the incident did not happen. DCS said due to a lack of preponderance of the evidence the investigation was dropped.
The information was forwarded to the Lawrence County Prosecutor’s Office and a warrant was issued for his arrest on three counts of child molesting.
