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WILKES-BARRE — A 20-year-old man from Avoca was sentenced in Luzerne County Court Thursday to special probation for having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a girl.
Gavin James Thomas was charged in February by Luzerne County detectives after investigating a Child Line report of suspected child abuse and neglect involving a minor, according to court records.
The girl was questioned by a forensic interviewer at the Luzerne County Children’s Advocacy Center in Wilkes-Barre where she described the relationship with Thomas, court records say.
Thomas, then 18, was charged due to an age difference of four years as the girl was 13 at the time of the relationship in 2021.
Thomas admitted he met the girl on a social media site in August 2021 and engaged in a secret sexual relationship with her for several months, court records say.
Court records say Thomas claimed he took a break from the girl when he learned about her age, but resumed having sexual relations with her in November 2021, continuing through the first week of December 2021.
Thomas pled guilty to statutory sexual assault and appeared before Judge David W. Lupas to be sentenced.
During the sentencing hearing, Thomas apologized calling his actions, “inexcusable.”
Lupas, citing Thomas’ young age and having no prior criminal history, sentenced him to three years in the county’s Intermediate Punishment Program with the first six months on house arrest.
Thomas’ case did not involve registration as a sex offender under the state’s Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.