{"id":132790,"date":"2026-03-08T12:11:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T12:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/132790\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T12:11:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T12:11:13","slug":"lehigh-county-man-kevin-esterly-found-guilty-of-sexually-abusing-girl-for-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/132790\/","title":{"rendered":"Lehigh County man Kevin Esterly found guilty of sexually abusing girl for years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"6abc Digital Staff Image\" class=\"hsDdd NDJZt sJeUN IJwXl \" data-testid=\"prism-image\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767787749_197_16248352_2024-wpvi-generic-6abc-logo-on-white-background-img-v3.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Friday, March 6, 2026 7:13PM<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/svg;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABAAAAAJCAQAAACRI2S5AAAAEElEQVR42mNkIAAYRxWAAQAG9gAKqv6+AwAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Lehigh County man found guilty of sexually abusing girl for years\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">ALLENTOWN, Pa. (WPVI) &#8212; A Lehigh County man could spend decades behind bars after being convicted of the sexual assault and rape of a child.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Prosecutors say Kevin Esterly of Whitehall Township assaulted a girl over a period of several years.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Pictured: Kevin Esterly is seen in a 2025 booking photo\" class=\"hsDdd NDJZt sJeUN IJwXl vBqtr KrDt itslR zFTjo hakZw HlUVI \" data-testid=\"prism-image\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/16723521_061125-wpvi-kevin-esterly-2025-photo-img.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Pictured: Kevin Esterly is seen in a 2025 booking photo<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The girl was, at one time, a friend of his daughter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \"><a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/6abc.com\/post\/man-arrested-in-mexico-with-teen-sentenced-to-2-to-5-years\/4598686\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">In 2018, he fled to Mexico<\/a> with her. He was subsequently charged and sentenced to prison.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Then, last year, the victim revealed that Esterly <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/6abc.com\/post\/pennsylvania-man-kevin-esterly-fled-mexico-teen-2018-now-charged-raping-child\/16723420\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">raped her when she was 14 and repeatedly assaulted her<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">He faces a possible sentence of 43 to 87 years in prison when he is sentenced in June.<br class=\" \"\/><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Friday, March 6, 2026 7:13PM ALLENTOWN, Pa. (WPVI) &#8212; A Lehigh County man could spend decades behind bars&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[61455,119,121,120],"class_list":["post-132790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-61455","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}