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Tattoo is key clue in lewd assault
A 15-year-old tells of being groped by a man near Sims Park. The art on his neck leads to a suspect.
By STEVE THOMPSON
Published April 22, 2005
NEW PORT RICHEY - The 15-year-old girl was skipping school Monday shortly after noon, walking along Leisure Lane on her way to Kmart. A stranger stopped to offer her a ride, and she accepted.
Later, the man began groping the girl in a parking lot near Sims Park, police said.
On Wednesday, police arrested 26-year-old Andrew W. Gaskell on a charge of lewd and lascivious molestation in the incident. Police said they found him because of the tattoo on his neck.
Gaskell, who is on probation after convictions including grand theft and burglary, first drove the girl to Kmart, then took her to pick up two female friends of hers on Main Street, police said.
The four of them drove to Green Key Beach, got out and walked around, police said. Then they drove to Sims Park.
Gaskell told New Port Richey police Detective Kenneth Petrillo that he dropped the three girls off there, and didn't see any of them again.
The 15-year-old girl told Petrillo that her two friends left, but she waited there for Gaskell to come back after running an errand. In a parking lot nearby, she said, he began grabbing her breasts and crotch and tried to put his hands under her clothes.
The girl said he gave up and dropped her off at the library on Main Street. The girl reported the episode to a school resource officer at Gulf High School.
The girl told Petrillo that she remembered the man's name was Andrew and that he had a yin and yang symbol - a Chinese symbol denoting the intertwined positive and negative forces of the universe - tattooed on his neck. Petrillo was talking later with other detectives, and one of them remembered arresting a man with such a tattoo, Andrew Gaskell.
Petrillo soon found Gaskell, 9642 Paran St., who admitted giving the girl a ride but denied groping her.
He was held in the county jail Thursday without bail.
[Last modified April 22, 2005, 00:44:19]
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