A 33-year-old Shenandoah man charged with rape of a child and related crimes after seeking an abortion for a 12-year-old he impregnated. The child was eight months pregnant, a result, Hector Rico told police, of the girl sexually assaulting him while he was sleeping.

Rico remains in Schuylkill County prison under $250,000 cash bail. He is charged with four felony counts each of rape of a child and aggravated indecent assault of a child, sexual assault, incest, and indecent assault of a person less than 13 years of age, statutory sexual assault of a child 11 years or older. He is also charged with corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of children.A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday before District Judge Anthony Kilker of Shenandoah.According to an affidavit of probable cause filed by Shenandoah police with Kilker, here's how the accusations against Rico surfaced:At 7:15 p.m. March 19, police received a call about a sexual assault at a borough house. They went to the home and spoke with the victim's mother, who told them her 12-year-old daughter had just taken a pregnancy test that showed a positive result. The child told her mother that Rico had been assaulting her over the past several months. Police told the mother to take the child to the hospital emergency room, and that Schuylkill County Children and Youth Services would be contacted.At 8 p.m., police contacted a woman identified only as "Marla," an attorney and social worker from Massachusetts who said she had gotten a call from a "Carlos" in Shenandoah, who had told her he wanted to get his 12-year-old girlfriend an abortion. Marla took Carlos' information, and explained that she could not help him. She contacted her local police department, which contacted Shenandoah police.The next day, March 20, at about 2 p.m., Shenandoah officer Michael O'Neill was in the borough to meet with a Children and Youth Services agency worker to interview the child. As he was driving on Route 924, he saw Police Chief Thomas Rentschler conducting a traffic stop. O'Neill stopped to help.Rentschler told him Hazleton police had received an abduction report, and the two cars he had stopped were involved. While identifying the people in the cars, O'Neill came across a Hispanic man in the back seat, who appeared to be injured.The man identified himself as Rico, and told O'Neill he had been picked up in Hazleton and assaulted.Rico was taken to Schuylkill Medical Center East in Pottsville. Police followed the ambulance there in order to take Rico into custody as soon as he was discharged.Meanwhile, O'Neill met with the C&Y worker at the police station. She told him the child's mother had taken her to a Hazleton hospital, where it was revealed she was 32 weeks pregnant.O'Neill observed and listened to the worker's interview with the child. The girl told the worker that Rico had begun sexually assaulting her several months earlier. The assaults happened in the time after she arrived home from school and before her mother arrived home from work. She said Rico ignored her pleas to stop, and that he told her not to tell anyone, that it was their secret.The girl described the assaults in detail, and said they happened about twice a week.The child said when she told Rico her stomach hurt and that she had not had her menstrual cycle for a long time, he bought a pregnancy test.The girl told the worker that when the test turned out positive, Rico acted surprised, and began to come up with lies and excuses to tell the girl's family. His initial plan was to have the child tell her mother that she was impregnated by a boy she met at a birthday party in New York City.Then, the girl said, he went  began calling people about abortions.When the child told her mother she was pregnant, Rico told the mother that it was an accident that happened in the shower, claiming he didn't do it on purpose, the child said to the C&Y worker.The girl told the worker she has never had a boyfriend.Police interviewed Rico, who told them the child sexually assaulted him while he was sleeping. She was stronger than he, Rico told police, and he could not get her to stop.In a second interview, Rico told police he "wants to pay for what he did." He then went on to describe what he said were consensual sexual relations with the child on three occasions. He admitted to telling the child to make up a story about how she became pregnant.