Man offered to help pay single mom’s rent, then abused her 11-year-old girl, feds say
After befriending a single mother who was struggling financially, a Virginia man offered to pay her rent if he could live with her with “no romantic strings attached,” federal prosecutors said.
Christopher Digges took advantage of the woman’s financial hardship to sexually abuse her daughter for the next three years, starting when she was 11 years old, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Digges’ defense attorney, Brandon K. Fellers, declined McClatchy News’ request for comment Oct. 25.
Digges moved in with the woman and her child in 2021 after she accepted his offer to help pay rent, prosecutors said. At the time, the woman worked three jobs and her daughter became fond of Digges, whom she described as a “father figure” and “mentor,” according to court documents.
Digges bought the girl an iPad and spent every day with her, court documents say.
“One day…he began to hurt her,” according to prosecutors, who said he went on to repeatedly sexually abuse her and had her perform sex acts to produce child abuse sexual material until she was 14.
In October 2021, Digges bought a home in Chesapeake and had the girl and her mother move in, prosecutors said.
“He bought the house specifically for (the girl),” prosecutors wrote in court documents. “He made that point clear in manipulative text messages he would send her when she was unavailable to him.”
As the sexual abuse continued, Digges also hit the girl and threatened to take her belongings away if she “did not comply with his requests or demands,” prosecutors said.
The girl’s mother reported Digges to law enforcement in July 2023, when she told authorities he sexually abused her daughter and created, and received, child sexual abuse material, according to prosecutors.
He’s prison-bound
Now, Digges, 41, has been sentenced to 29 years in federal prison on a charge of coercion and enticement of a minor, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in an Oct. 24 news release.
Before his sentencing on Oct. 24, prosecutors had asked the court to sentence Digges to life in prison and wrote in a court filing that “he is remorseless and blames (the girl).”
Fellers had argued in support of a sentence of no more than 13 years in prison for Digges, who pleaded guilty to the charge against him, according to a court filing he submitted.
“The Court must consider Mr. Digges crime not in a vacuum but in light of his entire life,” Fellers wrote, saying Digges’ parents, including a violent father, were mostly absent from his life and that he was raised by his grandparents.
When Digges was a child, his father shot at Digges’ grandparents home, striking Digges and his grandfather, Fellers said. It’s one of Digges’ few memories of his father, Fellers wrote.
He wrote that Digges’ “childhood was marred by trauma” and that he didn’t receive “adequate counseling for the trauma.”
In response, prosecutors acknowledged the hardship Digges faced in childhood but wrote in their court filing that his grandparents had a positive impact on him and that they “remained an economic safety net well into adulthood.”
The Chesapeake home Digges bought for the girl, “which he used to abuse (her),” was paid for by his grandmother, prosecutors noted.
After the girl’s mother reported Digges to authorities, Digges wouldn’t let her inside his house and prevented her from retrieving her and her daughters’ belongings, according to prosecutors.
“He called the police on her, saying she was trespassing and causing a scene,” prosecutors wrote in their court filing. “The girl and her mother still have next to nothing.”
The Chesapeake home has since been sold, and the government recovered $169,462.62 from the sale, according to prosecutors.
“Digges has demonstrated there is no way in which he can be trusted, he has no concept or understanding of the abhorrence of his crime, and believes he does not need help,” prosecutors wrote in their position on Digges’ sentencing.
This story was originally published October 25, 2024 at 12:38 PM with the headline "Man offered to help pay single mom’s rent, then abused her 11-year-old girl, feds say."
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