{"id":17876,"date":"2025-10-28T17:32:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T17:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/17876\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T17:32:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T17:32:07","slug":"upper-darby-man-acquitted-of-raping-a-child-at-his-mothers-day-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/17876\/","title":{"rendered":"Upper Darby man acquitted of raping a child at his mother\u2019s day care"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Delaware County<\/a> judge dismissed rape charges against a former county park police officer, saying the victim\u2019s recollection of the decade-old assaults she allaged was inconsistent with other evidence.<\/p>\n

William McGrath IV, 31, was acquitted of rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and related crimes<\/a> after a brief hearing Monday before Delaware County Court Judge Margaret J. Amoroso.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was no easy decision,\u201d the judge said in announcing her ruling. \u201cI believe the sincerity of the victim\u2019s testimony. However, coupled with the reports from experts, along with some of the other witnesses, it did cause \u2014 unfortunately or fortunately \u2014 some reasonable doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGrath\u2019s family let out a collective sigh of relief after the verdict was handed down, and outside the courtroom, some locked in tight embraces.<\/p>\n

The case began in May 2024, when a woman, now 21, contacted Upper Darby<\/a> police and told them McGrath had repeatedly raped her when she was 5 years old and attended a day care his mother ran out of their home. <\/p>\n

McGrath vehemently denied the accusations. <\/p>\n

His lawyer, Michael Noone, said Tuesday that he welcomed the judge\u2019s finding of not guilty. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have denied these allegations from the very beginning and this has been a hellish experience for him,\u201d Noone said.<\/p>\n

At a one-day bench trial last week, the woman testified that McGrath lured her to the basement of the home out of which his mother operated Miss Barb\u2019s Daycare with the promise of playing video games, and then assaulted her. Other times, she said, he abused her in the living room, episodes she said were sometimes interrupted when people walked in. <\/p>\n

She kept the abuse secret for years, she said, out of fear and shame, but finally told her parents last year, when they made plans to invite McGrath\u2019s parents to a family barbecue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt bad for my mom, because she put the trust of her only daughter in the hands of someone else\u201d with devastating consequence, the woman said.<\/p>\n

Noone said it was unlikely such assaults could have gone undiscovered in such a small space.<\/p>\n

And one of McGrath\u2019s brothers testified that the basement where the woman said she was raped was used as storage and suggested there was no space for such assaults to occur.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe devil is in the details,\u201d Noone told the judge. \u201cAnd in this case, the details indicate not only that this didn\u2019t happen, but that this really, physically, is highly unlikely to even be possible to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, McGrath\u2019s family said the last year has been difficult for them, and they questioned why the district attorney\u2019s office pursued a case that they said had no merit. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we are relieved that the truth has been revealed, we also hope that the woman involved gets the help and support she clearly needs,\u201d the family said. \u201cOur family believes in compassion, healing, and accountability \u2014 for everyone involved.\u201c <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Delaware County judge dismissed rape charges against a former county park police officer, saying the victim\u2019s recollection…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[147,149,148,150,12714],"class_list":["post-17876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upper-darby","tag-upper-darby","tag-upper-darby-headlines","tag-upper-darby-news","tag-upper-darby-township","tag-william-mcgrath-child-sex-assault-not-guilty-upper-darby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17876","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=17876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}