KISSIMMEE, Fla. – Osceola County deputies have arrested a 61-year-old registered sex offender accused of touching young girls inappropriately.
Walter Staples has been charged with 12 counts of lewd and lascivious molestation in the incidents involving a 7-year-old girl and 8-year-old girl.
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Deputies said the 7-year-old victim's mother told them her daughter met Staples, who her daughter called 'Uncle Lane,' when he was doing custodial work at the N&F Restaurant Catering in Kissimmee.
The victim told deputies she and her friends would hang out at the restaurant with her friends because they knew the owner of the business. Deputies said Staples would take her and her friends to the park and nearby gas station and ask the girls if he could touch them. When the girls would said no, Staples would inappropriately touch them outside of their clothes, according to the report.
The investigation led deputies to the 8-year-old victim. When detectives interviewed Staples, he said he knew the children but denied inappropriately touching them.
He was arrested based on his previous criminal history and numerous witness statements and booked into the Osceola County jail on no bond.