Girl, 12, tells about abuse

After a Wake County girl's dad died of cancer last summer, she couldn't control her bladder very well.

That's about the time, she said, that her mom's new boyfriend, William Caufman, a registered sex offender, punished her with a belt and closed-fist punches. By winter, the beatings turned to sexual advances -- all aimed to reprimand the girl for making messes.

The child, now 12, whispered her long-kept secrets into a microphone in a Johnston County courtroom Tuesday. She hugged a floppy-eared stuffed bunny and rested her chubby cheek against her fist. She hadn't faced Caufman since March when a grown-up, a neighbor, finally believed her stories of sexual abuse.

"He said keep it secret and not to tell anybody," she said. "I thought if I told that he'd keep touching me."

It is the policy of The News & Observer to not identify victims of sexual abuse.

Caufman, 40, is on trial on charges that he raped her in his single-wide trailer in the Cleveland community of Johnston County. He also ordered her to perform oral sex on him, the girl said Tuesday. If convicted, Caufman could spend the rest of his life in jail. He flatly denies the charges, his attorney Craig James said.

The child's mother and her two children began staying at Caufman's house often after the girl's father died.

"Every time I came home from school, I worried where we'd be going," the girl said.

It's not the first time Caufman has been accused of sexually abusing children. Prosecutor Elisabeth Dresel said at least five children -- boys and girls, from ages 2 to 15 -- suffered abuse at the hands of Caufman. Three of those incidents resulted in convictions.

In 1996, Caufman was convicted of fondling an 8-year-old girl, the daughter of his then girlfriend. That infraction earned him supervised probation. In 1999, a judge sentenced Caufman to 20 months in prison and five years' probation for groping a 9-year-old neighbor after luring her to his home with a doughnut. Both of those victims, now young women, are expected to testify against Caufman later this week.

During his second probation, counselors tried to treat Caufman for his sexual deviancy. According to court records, he attended every session. A judge terminated his probation in 2003, two years early, because he obeyed all the rules of his probation.

The girl in this case now lives with her aunt and uncle in Johnston County. In court Tuesday, a mess of curly bangs hung on her forehead and a dirty-blond ponytail brushed against her baggy T-shirt. She's a shy sixth-grader who loves math class, Dresel, the prosecutor, told jurors Tuesday.

She'll turn 13 this Friday. Freckled and full-bellied, she looks years younger.

The girl's mother sat expressionless in the back of the courtroom Tuesday as the child drew pictures to explain to the jury how Caufman abused her. Her mother sided with Caufman, and the two haven't spoken in months, Dresel said.