A 35-year-old man was sentenced Aug. 14, to 18-40 years in state prison for the rape of a girl in Richland Township.
Nicholas Hummel entered an open guilty plea in March to charges of rape of a child and related charges, the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said.
In addition to sentencing Hummel to state prison, Bucks County Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey L. Finley also ordered him to undergo sex offender treatment in prison and have no contact with the victim, or any unsupervised contact with anyone under 18 – after being released.
Hummel was also declared a sexually violent predator by Finley and will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life and participate in lifetime sex offender treatment as a result.
The investigation began in May 2022 after the then-13-year-old victim reported to her school counselor that she was being sexually assaulted by Hummel for several years. The investigation found that Hummel began sexually assaulting the victim in 2018, and had raped her as recently as two days before she made the report to the school counselor, the DAs office said.
Hummel pleaded guilty on March 1, 2023, to charges of rape of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse of a person less than 16, statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault of a child, aggravated indecent assault of a person less than 16, incest, indecent assault of a person less than 13, corruption of minors and indecent assault.
Family members spoke at sentencing about the trauma, pain, and confusion that the defendant’s actions have caused the victim. The victim chose to not be present at the sentencing but provided a powerful impact statement for the court’s consideration.
“The strength it took for this young woman to stand up to this man and seek out help after years of abuse is immeasurable,” Deputy District Attorney Mary Kate Kohler said. “She has been through so much heartache in her short life, but I have no doubt that she will thrive now that the defendant has been removed from society. She is a special young lady and has a bright future ahead of her.”
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