An East Stroudsburg man accused of assaulting a young girl when she was between the ages of 4 and 6 in Lansford has waived a preliminary hearing on the case. The charges stem from incidents which happened several years ago.

Robert Coutts, 45, remains free on $50,000 unsecured bail.He faces two counts of rape of a child, two counts of statutory sexual assault, two counts of indecent assault person less than 13 years of age, and two counts of indecent exposure.He had been scheduled to have a hearing before District Judge Casimir Kosciolek of Lansford last week but opted to waive all the charges to court.He must appear at the Carbon County District Attorney's Office for a pretrial conference on Sept. 4.The affidavit says that the female disclosed to family members that Coutts sexually assaulted her several years ago when she was between the ages of 4 and 6 while living in Lansford."This assault was described by the victim as occurring more than once, with the victim stating that it occurred any time that Coutts had an opportunity to get the victim alone," Sgt. Jack Soberick of the Lansford Police Department wrote in the affidavit.A medical examination of the victim indicated the assaults were rape, the affidavit says.