BUCKS COUNTY, Pa. (WTXF) - A Bucks County handyman who pleaded no contest to raping and assaulting six girls over more than two decades has been sentenced to serve 60 to 120 years in prison.
William Charles Thomas, 59 was sentenced earlier this week and also pleaded guilty to multiple child pornography charges that led to the identification of a seventh victim. Thomas was sentenced to serve a concurrent 40 to 100 years for those crimes.
Investigators began their investigation into Thomas after the manager of a Trailer Park off Bristol Pike says a tenant discovered explicit details about someone sexually assaulting two young girls, ages 3 and 6, written on a piece of plywood in a recently renovated trailer.
The writing identified the victims and their parents by names, and the times when he first molested the girls, according to investigators.
Further investigation revealed that Thomas, who lives in the park, had recently been contracted to renovate the trailer where the writings were discovered.
After receiving this report, the Falls Township Police Department researched previous contacts with Thomas and discovered several incidents of note, dating back to 2000.
Further investigation led detectives to Thomas' prior home in the Pinewood section of Levittown. There, inside a shed, they found more handwritten details of alleged sexual abuse. Some of the writing could be seen, but not read, after it was covered in paint.
Witnesses who reported the original writings also claimed to have been inside Thomas' trailer where they saw photos of a girl who appeared to be naked, and under the age of 18. The witness also noted that Thomas' phone background featured a similar photo of a young girl who also appeared underage.
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On February 2, 2017, officers issued a search warrant at Thomas' trailer, where they found more than 1,000 photos depicting naked children. More than 1,000 pairs of soiled children's underwear were also found inside of his trailer. Forensic teams spent four days processing the evidence inside the trailer.
According to investigators, some of the writings that were uncovered documented Thomas "molesting" children as young as three years old, back when Thomas himself was in his twenties.
During their search of Thomas' trailer, officers also discovered paraphernalia associated with methamphetamine and marijuana.