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Clearfield County man sentenced for sexually assaulting, raping child

CLEARFIELD — A Clearfield County man accused of sexually assaulting a 7-year-old boy was sent to state prison Monday during colloquy court.

Robert William Zortman, 23, Grampian, was sentenced by Judge Paul E. Cherry to four to eight years in state prison with three years’ consecutive reentry probation for four felony counts of aggravated indecent assault of a child.

He must complete sex offender counseling and have no unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18 or the victim.

Although he was determined not to be a sexually violent predator after an evaluation, he will have to register with authorities under Megan’s Law.

Originally, he was charged with four felony counts each of rape of a child, statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with child, aggravated indecent assault of child, and indecent assault person less than 13 years old, as well as four misdemeanor counts each of indecent assault, indecent assault person less than 16 years old, and indecent exposure.

The criminal complaint details how the investigation began after the victim reported in June that Zortman raped him while he was sleeping when he was 7 years old in 2016. He said this occurred at a residence in Grampian.

Zortman was 15 years old at the time of the assaults. In a previous article, District Attorney Ryan Sayers confirmed Zortman was being charged as an adult instead of a juvenile, because he is currently an adult.

When Zortman was interviewed by investigators in July, he denied all of the allegations.

In August, when Zortman was interviewed again, he admitted to the incident and said he performed oral sex on the victim four times, according to the report.

Zortman also stated he and the victim performed oral sex on each other “numerous times.”

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