A 65-year-old Tennessee man has been arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated rape of a child. Russell Vacherlon was arrested after reportedly confessing to a pastor that he molested a four-year-old girl.
Editor’s note: This article contains information about child sex abuse and assault that some readers might find disturbing and/or triggering.
According to an arrest report obtained by Scoop: Nashville, Vacherlon contacted the pastor on July 3 and confessed to sexually assaulting the girl.
When the pastor told Vacherlon to report himself to authorities, Vacherlon reportedly became angry and ended the call after expressing that he thought the conversation was confidential.
The pastor then reported Vacherlon to law enforcement.
On July 8, investigators received additional information from the victim’s father, who said that he walked in on Vacherlon alone with his daughter. The father said that Vacherlon was scrambling to put on his pants and that his daughter’s pants and underwear were down around her knees.
After getting his daughter to a safe location, the father said he asked her about the incident. The child reportedly indicated that this was not the first time Vacherlon had assaulted her.
During a forensic interview on July 16, the child told investigators that Vacherlon had been making her “suck his crotch” and that he had been “licking her butt.”
Vacherlon was formerly a keyboarding teacher at Christa McAuliffe Middle School in Palm Beach County, Florida. But Vacherlon forfeited his teaching license in 2023, roughly five years after being accused of inappropriately touching several 11-year-old girls, who were his students in 2018.
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In 2019, Vacherlon was charged with misdemeanor battery. Vacherlon continued to work in a school district job with no student contact until 2021, when the charges against him were dropped under the condition that he resign his teaching job, pay a $100 fine, and complete 25 hours of community service.
