A serial child molester from the Back Mountain who molested several young girls was deemed a sexually violent predator on Tuesday and sentenced to serve up to years in state prison. Jack P. Covert II, 66, of Harveys Lake, was ordered to remain behind bars for a minimum of over a half a century after being convicted on child abuse charges and on counts for possessing child sexual abuse images.
Prior to Covert being sentenced, several of his victims testified about the impact his crimes had on their lives. Covert faced sentencing in six cases on charges including forcible rape, attempted involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault of a child, possessing child sexual abuse images, attempted statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault of a child, corruption of minors.
Last April, Covert pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor counts of indecent assault of a child as well as felony counts of attempted statutory sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault of a child. He took the rape and child sex abuse image cases to trial and was convicted last year on felony counts of rape, attempted involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, possessing illicit images as well as one felony count of criminal use of a communication facility.
Prosecutors said Covert sexually molested one young girl starting when she was 5 years old and abused four other victims ranging in age from about 10 to Prior to the sentence being imposed, Scott requested consecutive prison sentences for each of the cases, noting the need to punish and rehabilitate Covert.
Defense attorney Ellen Mary Granahan noted that Covert had accepted responsibility for some of the offenses for which he has been convicted. She went on to add that Covert brought an assassination attempt against an unspecified female magistrate to the attention to authorities since his arrest and requested consideration for his cooperation.
