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Man Admits To Raping Three Girls

By Rudy Miller
Originally published in The Express-Times, July 27, 2001

EASTON — A Bethlehem man pleaded guilty Wednesday to raping three girls.

Police said Robert F. Tupper, 34, of the 3800 block of Route 378 raped the three girls repeatedly from 1997 to June 2000. The girls were 16, 14, and 11 years old when the rapes were reported.

Tupper agreed to plead guilty to four counts of rape. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors agreed to drop 26 counts of rape, 30 counts of statutory sexual assault, 30 counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, 30 counts of sexual assault, 60 counts of indecent assault and three counts of terroristic threats.

“We believe we could easily prove more than 200 counts,” Assistant District Attorney Robert Eyer said during a preliminary hearing last year.

Tupper faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison on each count of rape.

Police said the 16-year-old told police that Tupper raped her once or twice a week for the past eight years. The 11-year-old said he raped her at least once a week for the past seven years. A 5-year-old told police Tupper inappropriately touched her.

The 14-year-old told police she kept a journal of the assaults and said that the last rape occurred in May 2000.

Police said Tupper threatened to kill the girls and bury them in the woods if they told anyone what he was doing to them. Police said each girl knew Tupper was raping the other girls because Tupper would “brag that he had just had sex with one of the others and it was her turn now.”

Tupper’s sentencing is set for Oct. 5.