Man Convicted In Sexual Assault Of Two Lake Forest Youths

LAKE FOREST, CA — A telephone sting by a brave sexual assault victim ultimately led to a man pleading guilty to ongoing child molestation, authorities said.

Robert Earl Corns, 58, was convicted in for sexually assaulting two relatives, a boy and a girl, when they were "about 6- or 7-years-old in Lake Forest," court records show.

Corns will be sentenced in June on four counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a minor and one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child, all felonies. He is scheduled to be sentenced June 14 at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana. He faces 24 years in prison if he receives the maximum sentence.

Corns abused the victims between October 2002 and October 2008 while living with them in Lake Forest, according to court records.

He was charged in August 2017 after the female victim came forward to Orange County sheriff's deputies.

Corns admitted the sexual abuse in a covert phone call with the victim as investigators listened in, according to testimony at the defendant's preliminary hearing.

City News Service contributed to this report.