DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Several girls who were sent to live with a Pennsylvania man now on trial on charges he raped them have testified he had sex with them and they considered him to be their husband.
Prosecutors outside Philadelphia say 52-year-old Lee Donald Kaplan sexually assaulted six daughters of a couple who had “gifted” them to him because he helped them financially. Kaplan fathered two children by the eldest daughter, who’s now 19.
Girls ranging in age from 9 to 15 testified Thursday at Kaplan’s trial on rape, sexual assault and conspiracy charges.
A girl who’s 15 says Kaplan began having sexual contact with her when she was 11 or 12. She says she believed that’s what husbands and wives do. A 9-year-old says Kaplan told her “not to tell anybody what he was doing.”
Kaplan denies the charges.
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