A convicted child predator is on the run after allegedly groping a 7-year-old girl on her way to school, according to police.
Carlos Jose Ayala Morales, from Texas, is accused of inappropriately touching a young girl on her way to Travis Elementary School in Houston on January 27 after disturbing footage showed the 43-year-old on nearby CCTV running away from the scene.
According to police, it is not the first time Morales has been accused of trying to allegedly grope children. In 2018, he was sent to prison after he groped kids, between the ages of 7 and 15, in 10 separate incidents as they walked to and from school. In one horrifying incident, he tried to kidnap a seven-year-old girl by forcing her into the backseat of his car.
The schoolgirl’s brother shouted at Morales, prompting him to put the child down and speed away from the school. He was jailed for seven years for the offences. Under Texas law he could have been sentenced for up to 20 years but under the terms of the plea agreement, he was jailed for just seven.
“I think that’s definitely not long enough for that many repeat offenses,” the latest victim’s mum told Eyewitness News. “He was caught, he was convicted, he was put in prison for not enough time and then released,” said Heights parent Stella Hart.
According to ABC13, Morales does not appear on the Texas Sex Offender Registry – to the dismay of parents in the neighbourhood. “The fact that he’s been previously convicted and sent to prison, but yet was still not on the registry, is just unfathomable to me,” Heights parent Holly Roemisch said. “Somewhere along the line, a ball got dropped,” she added. Police are offering a £3,000 reward for his arrest.
It comes after a man in Texas has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to tampering with the corpse of his girlfriend. The charge related to the death of Heather Schwab, 35. She had been reported missing five months earlier by family members, who told investigators that they hadn’t seen her in about a year.
McKinney police obtained a warrant to search Chad Stevens’ home in November 2023, according to Fox 4. Officers found Schwab’s body in a refrigerator that was wrapped in copious amounts of plastic wrap. The refrigerator was located in a kitchen that was closed off with a piece of sheet rock, reported Mirror US.
Addressing Stevens in court this week, Schwab’s mother, Tammy, said: “You are evil. Evil and soulless. What you and only you committed and did to Heather is evil. Your worthless life has not served a single purpose. Your life has only brought fear, pain and destruction.”
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