Father charged with molestation, voyeurism

A Spokane father is facing charges he molested his daughters and watched them change clothes through holes and cracks in their walls.

The 53-year-old man, whose name is being withheld to protect the identities of his daughters, was arrested Monday evening on two charges of child molestation and two charges of voyeurism.

In court documents, detectives allege that the man spied on two of his daughters in recent months through a bathroom window, holes in the wall and an opening in the bathroom door jamb. The documents also allege he molested the girls about five years ago.

The two daughters, still minors, told Spokane County sheriff’s detectives they had been afraid to report the abuse in the past, thinking it might upset the family.

One of the daughters, 14, said she returned from being away last summer to find holes in her bedroom wall that allowed someone to look into her bedroom. She covered the holes with posters, but her father allegedly told the daughter to take them down.

The other daughter, now 17, said she found her father near the wall holes when she knew her younger sister was changing. She also said that her father had required her to keep a bathroom window open “so condensation would not build up,” she said. The daughter told detectives she caught her father looking in the bathroom window on several occasions.

Both girls also reported molestation that they said occurred in 2002 while they pretended to be sleeping.

In interviews with detectives, documents say, the father initially denied any wrongdoing but later admitted to touching the girls inappropriately and spying on them through the walls.

The man remained in the Spokane County Jail on Tuesday night on $75,000 bond.