A child’s cry for help resulted in the Thursday arrest of a Longview man charged with two counts of continuous sexual abuse of a child.
Robert Bryan Gribble, 33, was being held Friday under $500,000 bond in the Gregg County Jail.
A sworn statement by Longview Police Detective Kevin Brownlee says Gribble described several indecent acts he performed on two elementary school-age children. The incidents occurred from January 2009 through this month, the sworn complaint says.
http://liarcatchers.com/pedophile_tracking.html
According to Brownlee’s statement, which accompanies Gribble’s arrest warrants, the crimes occurred at two residences in Central Longview.
“This child absolutely did the bravest thing possible, and I am so thankful the child let the teacher know,” said Roxanne Stevenson, executive director of the Martin House Child Advocacy Center of Gregg and Harrison Counties.
“Parents should teach their kids about good touch and bad touch — about keeping secrets: what’s a good secret, like a surprise birthday party, and what’s a bad secret,” Stevenson said.
Brownlee wrote in the complaint that he was told Wednesday by an investigator with the Child Protective Services division of the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services that two children had been taken to the advocacy center.
The investigator told Brownlee that one of the children “had made an outcry to someone” and that Child Protective Services had been contacted by the children’s school.
Neither child repeated the complaint during interviews with advocacy center officials, the complaint says.
However, the same child who initially cried out began describing incidents of sexual abuse to a parent on the drive home, the complaint said.
The second child stated only that there was a secret held with Gribble but would not elaborate.
Brownlee’s interview with Gribble followed.
Steven said a partnership of professionals led to Gribble’s arrest. The Child Advocacy Center is a nonprofit agency, one of 66 statewide established to be a child’s first contact with help when they are abused or neglected.
“Parents need to know how prevalent this is in our community and know the signs,” Stevenson said. “So, when a child is too scared to talk about it, they see the signs.”
