Volusia County father, son accused of sexually abusing girls for more than 10 years

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — A 69-year-old man and his 47-year-old son were arrested in Volusia County Tuesday on charges they sexually abused two girls for more than 10 years.

Leslie Ross Sr. and Leslie Ross Jr. are accused of abusing one of the girls starting with she was 3 years old and the other when she was 5, investigators said.

Ross Jr. was previously investigated when he was a teacher at Taylor Middle-High School in 2006.

He had worked for the school since 1997 but resigned the day after the accusation was made, a school spokesperson said.

Ross Jr. would eventually marry the girl from that incident, Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said.

“These are sick, twisted, demented individuals,” Chitwood said. “You have a guy who’s a school teacher, middle school teacher, who allegedly hooks up with one of his students, eventually marries her and has two children with her.”

Ross Sr. was investigated in 2006 on accusations that he was sexually abusing one of the victims when she was 2 years old.

That case was ultimately dropped for a lack of evidence, investigators said.

The alleged abuse came to light recently, Chitwood said.

“Fast-forward to 2017, where the girls are a little older and the girls are now acting out what occurred to them onto other friends,” he said.

One of the girls’ friends told her mother, who called law enforcement, Chitwood said.

The details of the alleged abuse were shocking, even to a longtime law-enforcement official like Chitwood.

“When you read the arrest affidavit, if it doesn’t make you physically ill, I don’t know what will,” he said.

Both men were being held at the Volusia County Jail without bond on charges of sexual battery on a person younger than 12 years old and lewd and lascivious molestation of a person younger than 12 years old.

Cox Media Group