Update: Port Richey Man Charged With Sexually Assaulting Child

PORT RICHEY, FL – A 42-year-old Port Richey man was arrested Sunday, March 4, after a 9-year-old girl told deputies he molested her.

Pasco County Sheriff's deputies were called to Morton Plant North Bay Hospital in New Port Richey where the girl was taken Sunday morning after complaining to her parents that her vaginal area was sore and it hurt to urinate.

An exam showed the girl had injuries consistent with being molested.

The girl’s father said Robert Vierday and his wife, who moved in next door to them in August, invited their family over for a barbecue. Afterward, the 9-year-old girl’s parents reciprocated by having the Vierdays and their children over to play on the backyard trampoline and then watch a movie inside.

Both wives then left to put their younger children to bed. Vierday, his 10-year-old son and the 9-year-old girl continued watching a movie until the girl fell asleep.

The girl told deputies she woke up to find Vierday carrying her to her bed. She said that’s when the molestation occurred.

Vierday is charged with rape and sexual battery on a child under the age of 12.

Vierday is currently awaiting trial on a May 2017 Pinellas County charge for burglary, sexual battery and coercion of a physically helpless person while living in Largo. He was released from jail on a $100,000 bond.

Because he has not been convicted, Vierday is not required to register as a sexual predator and there was no legal obligation to inform his neighbors of his pending trial when he moved from Largo to Port Richey.

The 9-year-old’s father said his daughter is “unbelievably strong” and is handling the trauma well despite the fact that the father felt he had no choice but to quickly pack up and move his family out of the neighborhood because Vierdays are still living next door.

Image via Pasco Sheriff