- November 15, 2024
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A Palm Coast man has been charged with five sex crimes against children after a 12-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy told their mother Feb. 7 that the man, Joel Aiello, had touched them inappropriately under their clothes.
The girl told a Child Protection Team investigator in a Feb. 8 interview that the molestation began when she was 11, and that one incident was just a month ago; the boy said it started when he was 13, about a year ago. Both children described several incidents when Aiello made sexual comments and enticed them to perform sexual acts "by making deals with" them, according to a Flagler County Sheriff's Office charging affidavit.
Deputies arrested Aiello Feb. 8 and took him to the Flagler County jail, according to the Sheriff's Office affidavit.
He faces two counts of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child aged 12-16, two counts of lewd and lascivious conduct, and one count of committing a lewd and lascivious act on a child under 12. He is being held on a combined $160,000 bond.
Aiello was previously arrested in Flagler County in 2012 on a charge of forging a $1,200 check from his daughter's bank account, and pleaded no contest in that case.