County Man Guilty Of Child Rape

After a two day jury trial Russell Jolliffe, 33 of Fredricktown was handed a unanimous conviction on Wednesday. He was convicted on four felony charges of rape of a child, aggravated indecent assault of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child and aggravated indecent assault of a minor. Jolliffe along with his girlfriend Joanna Wheatley were charged after relatives of the victim discovered pornography loaded onto their electronic device. The revelations came about in 2021, the assaults dated back to 2018. After the second day of testimony that found Wheatly defending her boyfriend and Jolliffe testifying in his own defense that he never touched the victim, it took a jury just under 90 minutes to convict Jolliffe. Speaking on behalf of his client, defense attorney Mark Adams states that there are inconsistencies in the victim’s testimony that created reasonable doubt. Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh was pleased with the verdict thanking Assistant District Attorney Sam Zappala and the team he gathered for their hard work. Jolliffe will be filing an appeal to the conviction, he will be sentenced on November 22.