If you or someone you know needs resources or support related to sexual violence, contact the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault’s 24/7 hotline at 800-871-7741.
AUGUSTA, Maine — A 79-year-old Rome man accused of attacking and injuring a woman with a softball bat after she confronted him over allegations he sexually assaulted her daughter pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and sexual assault charges Wednesday at the Capital Judicial Center.
David Allen Henry allegedly beat and strangled a woman at his Rome Road home Feb. 9 after she went there to confront him with allegations the woman had learned about from Henry’s wife, that he had sexually assaulted the woman’s daughter several years ago.
Henry, who appeared in court Wednesday via video from Kennebec County jail alongside his attorney, Lisa Whittier, has a long white beard and pleaded “not guilty,” in a gravelly voice.
The woman told police, according to an affidavit filed in court by Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office Detective John Bourque, that she was on her phone while sitting in a recliner in Henry’s home when he hit her in the head multiple times with a bat he had hidden behind his back. She said she was able to grab a shovel to try to shield her face but he continued to strike her with the aluminum bat. She said he also smashed her in the face with a large glass candle.
A witness who interrupted the incident said she came in the home to see Henry on top of the woman, with his knee in her crotch or stomach and his hand on her throat, using the bat to help hold her down.
The witness said she yelled at Henry to get off the woman and that he was going to kill her. He allegedly replied, “I’m trying to,” and told her that the woman had come to his home to kill him, so he was going to kill her.
The witness was able to get the bat away from Henry, hit him with it, and drag the woman away, driving her to meet an ambulance that took her to the emergency room at Thayer Center for Health in Waterville.
The woman’s injuries included, the affidavit states, a broken right elbow; a swollen and bruised arm; wounds requiring stitches inside her mouth and lips; numerous wounds requiring stitches and staples in her head; and abrasions, red marks and bruising to her neck and jaw line “likely caused by the strangulation.”
Henry remains jailed on $100,000 bail. In addition to attempted murder, he is charged with and pleaded not guilty to two counts of elevated aggravated assault, three counts of unlawful sexual contact, and six counts of gross sexual assault.
When police asked what happened, according to Bourque’s affidavit, Henry said the woman had called him saying she was going to kill him. When asked why she would say that to him, he told police he didn’t know.
“You’ll have to ask her,” he told police.
He claimed the woman attacked him first, striking him with a shovel in the head and neck, but police said they did not see any visible injuries to him.
A Kennebec County grand jury indicted Henry on April 22 of the 12 counts he pleaded not guilty to Wednesday. All of the sexual assault charges appear to involve the same victim.
The indictment alleges Henry committed gross sexual assault on the child multiple times when she was younger than 12 years old, on or between Nov. 29, 2016, and Nov. 28, 2019, and when she was under 14 years old, between Nov. 29, 2016, and Nov. 28, 2021, in Rome. The three unlawful sexual contact charges allege Henry subjected the victim to sexual contact during the same timeframes when she was under 12 years old and when the victim was younger than 14 years old, also in Rome.
Henry was already designated a lifetime registrant on the Maine Sex Offender Registry after he was convicted in 2000 of unlawful sexual contact with a child younger than 14.
This story was originally published by the Maine Trust for Local News. Keith Edwards can be reached at [email protected].
