Four held in child sex abuse case

Pope County suspect charged; 3 others to appear in court

Pope County sheriff's deputies have arrested four people accused of sexually abusing at least five minors in two separate cases, a spokesman for the sheriff's office said Tuesday.

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One of the suspects, Paul Louis Myers, 41, of Dover appeared in court Monday and was ordered held in lieu of $350,000 bond, according to spokesman Ramona Woods.

The names of the three others arrested were not released Tuesday, but Woods said they are scheduled to appear in court today.

In one of two incidents described in a report released Tuesday by the sheriff's office, the mother of a 13-year-old girl reported Sunday that her daughter told her that Myers had fondled her and took nude pictures of her with his cellphone.

In the second case, according to the report, a mother and her four children, ages 4 to 10, were staying with Myers and his wife Saturday. The mother said Myers took cellphone photos of the children, including their genitals, as they slept.

Two of the children woke and asked Myers what he was doing, according to the report. The mother said Myers took them into a bathroom, filled the tub with water and dish soap, grabbed the children by the throat and dunked them under the water. He then told them that if they told their mother, he would hurt everyone in the house, according to the report.

The mother said she went to sleep with the children in the living room, awoke during the night and saw Myers taking photos of the children, the report said. When she awoke in the morning, she found the wet bathroom, gathered up the children and left.

She reported that she drove to a hospital in Russellville after one of the children was hot, sweaty and complained of a sore throat. The child's eyes kept rolling into the back of her head, according to the report.

Information for this article was contributed by Jaime Dunaway of Arkansas Online.

State Desk on 05/18/2016

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