An apprentice plumber in Houston who molested a 4-year-old girl at her home and recorded the incident on video has been sentenced to prison, authorities said.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced Thursday that Brandon Joseph Bonds, 26, pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault of a child and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
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The incident happened on Aug. 25, 2018, when Bonds and his boss, a master plumber, went to a home in the Houston area for a job. They were in the family’s garage apartment, and the father asked the master plumber to check on an upstairs bathroom.
The father locked the back door, leaving Bonds outside, Ogg said.
Bonds was able to get the girl, who was watching television in the living room, to unlock the door, Ogg said. Once inside, he molested the girl and then went upstairs, where the father asked how he got inside.
The child told her parents about the incident after the plumbers left. She was taken to a hospital, where DNA was collected.
Ogg said other evidence from Bonds’ phone showed that he recorded the incident. He deleted the video, but investigators recovered evidence that it existed, Ogg said.
“It’s every parent’s worst nightmare to have a stranger violate the sanctity of a family’s home and abuse a small child, and I’m proud we were able to get justice for this little girl,” Ogg said.
Assistant District Attorney Preston Burns, who prosecuted the case, called it one of the worst cases of child abuse because her home “should have been the safest place in the universe for her.”
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