- May 8, 2024
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A 14-year-old girl was walking near the school bus stop at the intersection of State Road 100 and McCormick Drive Jan. 31 when a man approached from the opposite direction on a blue bicycle, smacked her on the rear end as he passed her, and said, "Hey, let me get some of that."
The girl told her great-grandmother, who told the Sheriff's Office. But at the time, deputies didn't know who the man was, and the case was closed. Now, they do — because he approached other children at the same bus stop, according to a Flagler County Sheriff's Office arrest report.
William Arthur Walsh, 52, has been arrested and charged with felony child abuse.
Deputies caught him after an incident Feb. 17, when a local parent called the Sheriff's Office. The parent said a strange man had tried to lure the parent's daughter away from the bus stop at McCormick Drive and S.R. 100 by showing her a drawing of a dog, saying it was lost, and asking her to help find it.
The same man had been seen riding a blue bicycle and trying to talk to children at the bus stop, the parent said, describing the man as late-40s, 5'11" to 6' tall with a scruffy beard and always wearing a baseball cap.
A deputy spoke to some of the children who got off the bus at that stop, and "they all reported seeing a man fitting the same description who attempts to speak with them when there are no adults at the bus stop," the deputy wrote in an arrest report.
The children also said the man always wore a baseball cap and had been seen riding a bicycle through the nearby Madison Green Apartments complex.
Later the same day, the deputy parked his patrol car near the bus stop, out of sight of the road, and staked out the intersection. He saw a man who fit the suspect's description wearing a black baseball cap and riding a blue bicycle toward the Madison Green Apartments. When the man saw the patrol cruiser, he turned around and headed west on S.R. 100.
The deputy stopped him. The man, identified as William Walsh, said he was heading home and "became scared when he observed law enforcement." But Walsh didn't live in Madison Green. He lived in Bunnell, at the Thunder Gulch Campground trailer park at 2551 N. State Street.
And Walsh, the deputy wrote in the arrest report, "had two plastic bags hanging from his handle bars and within plain view was three pairs of children's underwear."
Walsh said he'd bought them for a girl, but couldn't give the deputy a name. The deputy read Walsh his Miranda rights and got Walsh's permission to search him. The deputy found that Walsh was wearing girls' underwear.
The Sheriff's Office contacted the family of the 14-year-old girl who'd been assaulted and brought her in for a lineup. The girl identified Walsh as the man who'd touched her, and "was emotional and was crying" after she saw him, according to the deputy's report.
The deputy arrested Walsh and charged him with felony child abuse. Walsh admitted to speaking with the 14-year-old girl but denied smacking her. Deputies took him to the county jail, where he remained as of Feb. 20 on $5,000 bond.
Walsh had previously been arrested for disorderly intoxication Sept. 7, 2015, for probation violation Sept. 18, 2015, and for trespass after warning April 28, 2016.
