ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – A 68-year-old man was arrested Friday afternoon after inappropriately touching a young girl and exchanging inappropriate text messages with her, the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office said.
Robert Gerrard Aquaro, of Palm Coast, is charged with two counts of simple battery, unlawful use of a two-way communication device and using a computer service to seduce, solicit, lure or entice a child to commit an unlawful sexual act with a child.
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The Sheriff's Office said a three-day investigation began earlier this week when the mother of a young girl discovered inappropriate text messages between Aquaro and the child, who is under the age of 12, and then notified deputies.
Based on the investigation, detectives with the Special Victims’ Unit, with assistance from the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, served a search warrant at Aquaro's Palm Coast home Friday, according to the Sheriff's Office.
Investigators said they also seized several communication devices that will be forensically searched.
According to detectives, the child's family and Aquaro have known each other for the last two months. During that time, Aquaro is accused of inappropriately touching the girl on two separate occasions, investigators said.
News4Jax crime and safety analyst Gil Smith said it's not uncommon for children to become sexually victimized by someone they know.
"“It’s important, especially when someone is new to the family, to really monitor your children and be very careful with who they will be around," Smith said. "Now in this case, it worked out well that the text messages were not deleted. Sometimes, you’ll get a text message and delete them. So it was good that the text messages were still there so the mother, through investigation, could look and see these inappropriate messages.”
Aquaro was booked into the St. Johns County Jail. His first appearance hearing is set for Saturday morning.
The Sheriff's Office continues to investigate.