NORRISTOWN — As he learned he’s headed to prison on child sexual abuse charges, a Pottstown man continued to claim he fell in love with a teenage girl, who prosecutors said was a troubled runaway to whom he provided drugs and groomed for his sexual gratification.
“I fell in love with a 15-year-old girl and I had an adult relationship with her. I didn’t do anything she didn’t want to do. I didn’t want to hurt (the girl) and I apologize,” Mark Melle, 39, said in Montgomery County Court as he faced a judge for sentencing after he pleaded guilty to a charge of statutory sexual assault.
Melle added, “I am an honest person and I love women.”
Judge Wendy G. Rothstein sentenced Melle, of the 100 block of Walnut Street, to 30 to 60 months in a state correctional facility. Melle also must complete two years’ probation consecutive to parole, meaning he will be under court supervision for seven years.
Additionally, Melle will have to report his address to state police for 25 years in order to comply with Pennsylvania’s Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act. The judge added Melle, a father of eight, is prohibited from having unsupervised contact with minors and he is prohibited from supervising minors in any future employment setting.
“You had sexual relations with a minor. You knew she had family issues and knew she was vulnerable. She was a troubled teenager. That didn’t entitle you to take advantage of her, but you did,” Rothstein addressed Melle.
As he was escorted from the courtroom by sheriff’s deputies to begin serving the prison term, Melle uttered an obscene remark when asked by a reporter to comment about the sentence.
Melle’s sexual contact with the girl occurred between July and September of 2020, when he was 37 and the girl was 15. The investigation began when someone reported the relationship to Pottstown police.
“The complainant advised Melle provided the victim drugs and engaged in a physical relationship with the victim,” former Pottstown Detective Heather Long, who is now a county detective, wrote in the criminal complaint.
The girl was reported as a runaway to Lower Pottsgrove police and on Sept. 16, 2020, detectives set up surveillance in the area of Melle’s Walnut Street residence after an emergency ping of the victim’s cellphone placed the phone in the area of Melle’s residence, according to court documents. When detectives initially made contact with Melle he denied knowing the whereabouts of the girl.
“Melle knew where the victim was and did not provide that information to police. In fact, he delivered food to her immediately following his contact with police,” Long alleged in the arrest affidavit.
Detectives eventually made contact with the victim in the Walnut Street area and were able to review her cellphone, which included numerous photographs and videos of Melle and the girl, some of them sexual in nature and others depicting “behavior to be consistent with the ingestion of narcotics,” according to the criminal complaint.
Assistant District Attorney Lauren Marvel sought a state prison term against Melle.
“The defendant knew that this minor had a lot going on in her life that made her very vulnerable. She was dealing with a lot of difficulties, outside of the regular difficulties of just being a teenager, and he took advantage of that,” Marvel said. “He not only took advantage of it, but he made it worse by giving her drugs during the course of their relationship, by isolating her from her family and he did that for his sexual gratification.”
While Melle admitted in court that he knew the girl was 15 he previously told investigators and court officials that he believed she was 16 or 23.
While Melle professed in court to be honest and to love women Marvel argued, “I believe that the evidence we put forward showed that the opposite is true.”
Defense lawyer George Griffith Jr., at Melle’s request, argued for a time-served sentence for Melle with credit for the 18 months he’d been in jail while awaiting court action on the charges. While it didn’t mitigate what occurred, Griffith argued Melle “had a troubled childhood.”
“He was introduced to drugs and physical and verbal abuse at a young age. Mark doesn’t know how to cope. He needs some help with coping mechanisms. Hopefully, Mark can turn his life around given the opportunity when he’s paroled,” Griffith said.
Other charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault of a minor, unlawful contact with a minor, endangering the welfare of a child, corruption of a minor and interference with custody of a child were dismissed against Melle in exchange for his guilty plea to the statutory sexual assault charge.
