Mom of 6-year-old boy allegedly sexually assaulted by babysitter speaks out
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A mother is speaking out after her 6-year-old son was allegedly sexually assaulted by his babysitter.
The preliminary hearing for Nicholas Gindele, 25, was postponed at Pittsburgh Municipal Court on Wednesday, but that didn't stop the victim's mom from speaking out.
"I've taken most of my cues from my son. He's very bold and not afraid to be his own advocate. We just wanted to get the story out there so other kids won't be abused by him in the future," she said.
Investigators say they were contacted about the allegations at the end of May. The boy told police at UPMC Children's Hospital that he was abused by Gindele. The boy's mom told KDKA-TV that she hired Gindele through Care.com a little more than a year ago. She said that Gindele babysat her son occasionally and babysat for other families.
"There's a big question of why you would think that we were the perfect people for you to break our trust and be victims?" she said.
She said she trusted Gindele even more since he worked at the Sarah Heinz House as the education program director before he was arrested and terminated. The organization told KDKA-TV that all employees and volunteers must undergo a comprehensive criminal background check prior to them being hired and then again annually.
The victim's mother said she also paid a premium to get extra background checks done through Care.com. She recently got an email from the website to let her know that Gindele was removed from the Care.com community, which she feels isn't enough.
"A copy and paste email just saying stop using him isn't quite enough to justify the level of what occurred. I know that a lot of the background checks are basic and if they could do more thorough evaluation of these people before they let them on the sites," she said.
Care.com states that it runs a background check on all caregivers and encourages families to run their own checks too.
"We are deeply disturbed by this incident and our thoughts are with the impacted family," the website said in a statement. "We take the safety of our community very seriously which is why we require all caregivers to complete a CareCheck background check before they can engage with families on our platform. A profile on our site belonging to this individual has now been closed and we've taken steps to block him from re-enrolling. We are in communication with law enforcement and as this is an active investigation, we won't comment further."
KDKA-TV also looked into Gindele's criminal history, which shows he's only had a few traffic violations in Allegheny and Washington counties.
Pittsburgh Police say they're actively investigating but no other victims have been identified right now.
