Hazleton man accused in rape of minor
Police have accused a 20-year-old man of raping a teenaged girl from Carbon County, and soliciting nude photos from multiple others.
Police are asking anyone else who may have been a victim to contact them.
The accused, 20-year-old Keefer McKenzie Ngirngesechei, was recently charged with a long list of felony incidents, in connection with two separate incidents in Carbon and Luzerne County.
The incidents occurred approximately between October and December of 2016.
Police said that Ngirngesechei confessed to having coerced the girl from Carbon County, age 15, as well as another in Luzerne County, into sex acts.
In both cases, he did so by threatening to distribute photos they had sent him showing them in various states of undress.
Details on the Luzerne County case were not immediately available Monday.
In the Carbon County case, Ngirngesechei admitted to telling the girl that he would send the nude photos to her parents, and post them on social media, if she did not engage in intercourse with him. He said that in late November, he and the girl traveled to a park where he forced her to perform oral sex on him, then performed oral sex on her, inside of his car.
The victim confirmed that account in an interview with police on Jan. 12.
Ngirngesechei now faces 25 felony charges in Carbon County, as well as another 25 in Luzerne. The charges include rape, child pornography, and sexual assault.
He is currently being held at Carbon County Prison on $150,000 bail. He was jailed there after posting bail in Luzerne County. He is due back in court in Carbon County on January 25.
Police believe that there may be more underage victims in the case. If anyone has information, they are asked to contact state police at 570-459-3890.