EXETER — Police say that a guy in the area who is accused of sexually assaulting a 3-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy told them that he “regrets everything that has happened.”
Three counts of severe felonious sexual assault and two counts of felonious sexual assault were brought against 33-year-old Michael Long of Rochester by a grand jury in Rockingham County last month.
The attacks are said to have happened in Exeter between January 2018 and December 2019.
An indictment doesn’t mean someone is guilty; it just means the grand jury found enough proof to put the person on trial. Long is set to go to trial on December 2, and his last meeting before the trial is set for November 21.
In October 2023, Long was caught by cops in Exeter.
A police affidavit says that the investigation into Long began in 2019 after a child protection services worker sent police a DCYF report. A 5-year-old boy told the police that Long had sexually abused him and a 3-year-old girl, according to the report.
The investigation stopped, though, when the kids and their mom didn’t show up for an interview at the Child Advocacy Center.
Rochester police called Exeter police on August 31, 2023, and the case was brought back to life. As part of their report, the police gave the children’s mother images from a Facebook message in which Long admitted to sexually assaulting the children.
“I was wrong.” “Very Wrong,” Long wrote in a message that he is said to have sent to the mother. “That’s how I’ve been living since then. At that point, I was going through a very lonely time, and I didn’t even think my brain was working because I would never hurt either of them on purpose.
They say Long then wrote, “You told me nothing bad would happen if I told you the truth.” Could you do that again?”
A police report says that the two kids were later questioned separately at the Child Advocacy Center. The first person said Long “is a bad man who has done bad things,” and the second person said Long “made him do some wrong things.” Both women told the police about sexual assaults in very graphic detail, which was written up in a statement.
Long says he abused children sexually.
After the interviews at the Child Advocacy Center, the assistant attorney general, Joshua Speicher, permitted the cops to record a one-party phone call between Long and the children’s mother.
The police report says that Long said on the call, “I have 110 percent regret for what happened.” I don’t like what took place either. I feel bad about it. No matter what, I have to live with myself.
After going into more depth about what happened, Long said, “I’m not OK with it, but I’m OK with it at the same time.” It’s fine with me if I can never see them by myself again.
After that, he said, “I made a terrible mistake that I can never take back, and I’m going to spend the rest of my life trying to make things right.” No matter what.”
As part of their investigation, police talked to the mother of the two kids on September 20, 2023, and then they talked to Long at the police station on October 5, 2023.
The police affidavit says that Long admitted to the attacks when he was questioned by Detective John Suglia of the Exeter police.
“Long also said that he had done many wrong things in his life and that this was one he would never do again,” Suglia wrote in the police report. “If he had to tell (the victims) anything it would be that he is very sorry for what happened and that they didn’t deserve that.”
Source: Rochester man faces trial for alleged sexual assault of two children
