A Lansing man who previously served 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting a child faces up to life in prison after a jury found him guilty of sex crimes against four children.
Timothy Bywater, 30, was found guilty Monday in Ingham County Circuit Court of multiple counts, including assault with intent to commit sexual penetration and indecent exposure.
He was convicted as a “sexually delinquent person,” which increases his maximum possible penalty to life in prison.
http://liarcatchers.com/pedophile_tracking.html
All four children were under the age of 10. Bywater did not know them, prosecutors said.
One of the incidents, involving two sisters who were 5 and 7, happened last July in a stairwell at the Capital Area District Library’s Lansing branch.
A library surveillance video played during the one-week trial before Judge Joyce Draganchuk captured him talking to the girls and leading them into the stairwell, according to prosecutors. Once in the stairwell, he exposed himself and molested one of the girls.
Bywater was arrested soon after that incident.
His attorney, Keith Watson, could not be reached by phone and did not return an email seeking comment.
Bywater also was convicted of two earlier assaults.
In March 2012, he lured a 5-year-old boy into the bathroom of a Lansing church, exposed himself and tried to sexually assault the boy. The boy’s father, who was in another part of the church, interrupted the assault, but Bywater was able to run away.
Then, in May, according to prosecutors, Bywater lured a girl into a garage on Kalamazoo Street and attempted to sexually assault her.
In all the cases, prosecutors said, Bywater approached the children and asked if they wanted to see something. In at least one incident, it was a “Looney Tunes statue,” prosecutors said.
Bywater has been a registered sex offender since 2000, when at 17, he was convicted of assault with intent to commit sexual penetration. He was sentenced to six to 10 years in prison and served all 10 years.
