A Scottdale man will serve up to 40 years in prison for the rape and repeated sexual assault of a young girl over a five-year period that ended in 2016.
Dylan Chiaramonte, 28, declined to speak during his a sentencing hearing Wednesday during which his accuser, now 14, told him she still struggles to deal with the horrors inflicted on her by a man she once trusted.
“What you did to me will haunt me for the rest of my life, and I hope it haunts you, too,” she testified.
Following a three-day jury trial in September, Chiaramonte was convicted of rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault and corruption of a minor.
Westmoreland County prosecutors contended that, starting in 2011, Chiaramonte groomed and forced a then 4-year-old girl into sexual acts and continued to do so for five years, sometimes daily. Witnesses at trial testified Chiaramonte manipulated the child to spend time in his locked bedroom and arranged for other adults to leave his Scottdale home to facilitate the sexual assaults.
Chiaramonte denied the allegations. During his trial, he testified was he physically unable to have sex because of his weight. He claimed he weighed 625 pounds during the period police said the sexual assaults occurred.
He appeared in court confined to a wheelchair and did not speak during the sentencing hearing.
Judge Rita Hathaway sentenced Chiaramonte to serve a 20- to 40-year prison sentence and an additional 14 years on probation.
“You could have been a role model to her, but you abused her,” Hathaway said.
The judge also classified Chiaramonte as a “sexually violent predator,” a designation that carries a lifetime requirement that he register with police as a convicted sex offender.
