A North Anson man is being held at the Somerset County Jail after allegedly sexually assaulting three girls, including two grandchildren of a woman with whom he was in a long-term relationship.

Phillip W. Dickey, 73, was arrested Friday on two counts of gross sexual assault and three counts of unlawful sexual contact. He is being held on $10,000 cash bail, according to records filed in the Skowhegan District Court.

The assaults allegedly took place over a seven-year timespan and at Dickey’s residence on New Portland Road, in a camper on his property or at a campsite nearby, according to an affidavit by Maine State Police Detective Bryant P. Jacques.

Two of the girls were the granddaughters of a woman with whom Dickey was in a long-term relationship, according to the affidavit. The girls, who are now teenagers, reported that they had been assaulted as children after they learned that Dickey had recently allegedly assaulted a neighbor for whom they babysit.

The older girls said they were assaulted by Dickey while living with him, their grandmother and their parents. The assaults took place at the residence or in a camper either on the property or at a campsite down the road, they said.

One of the girls also told police that Dickey threatened to hurt her if she told anyone about the assaults, the affidavit said.

The grandmother was also interviewed by police and said she was not aware the assaults were taking place. However, she said she did remember one night the couple was spending at the campsite when she woke up to go to the bathroom and found the girl’s underpants lying near the couch.

Dickey was watching television on the couch with the girl lying next to him in a blanket and the grandmother scolded the girl for not having her underwear on, the affidavit said.

The girls said the assaults stopped when they moved out of the New Portland Road residence with their parents about six years ago and they never told anyone. There is no statute of limitations for gross sexual assault or unlawful sexual contact on victims under 16 in Maine.

In August one of the girls who also babysits for Dickey’s neighbor overheard the parents talking about blocking off Dickey’s view of their swimming pool, the affidavit said.

When the girl asked them about it, they told her their daughter had reported being assaulted by Dickey. The younger girl recently saw a video at school about body safety that prompted her to tell her parents, the affidavit said.

The younger girl said that Dickey had assaulted her on two occasions.

The girl’s mother reported the case to state police in August.

The two families also met with a victims’ advocate in Skowhegan. The parents of the teenage girls, who are sisters, and their grandmother confronted Dickey about the allegations, but he has denied them, according to the affidavit.

Dickey is being held at the Somerset County Jail on $10,000 cash bail and is scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 25.

As conditions of release, he is not allowed to have contact with any of the victims or their parents, is not allowed to be in possession of a firearm, is not allowed to come within 1,000 feet of any school in North Anson, and is not allowed to have contact with any children under the age of 16.

This information on the statute of limitations has been corrected in this story.

Rachel Ohm — 612-2368

rohm@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @rachel_ohm

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