MESA, AZ — A volunteer church bus driver has pleaded guilty to sexually motivated child abuse of five victims over the past twenty years.
Court documents show that last week 79-year-old Richard Gary Donnelly plead guilty to attempted child molestation and four counts of child abuse with sexual motivation.
In the plea agreement, Donnelly agrees to spend ten years in prison, and be placed on lifetime probation upon his release.
Donnelly was arrested last July after MCSO responded to a report that Donnelly had molested a 9-year-old girl in an unincorporated area of Mesa.
He was known to the victim as 'brother Donnelly' a volunteer bus driver at the victim’s church.
When interviewed, Donnelly made admissions to sexually touching the girl. He also said that he molested two other girls under 10-years-old, "several times over the span of multiple occasions around twenty years ago."
MCSO investigators say Donnelly was laughing when he mentioned that his latest victim had the same name and appearance as a girl he molested twenty years ago.
Court records show Donnelly was guilty of abusing a total of five victims.
