A Beaver man was sentenced Thursday, Sept. 4, in Butler County Common Pleas Court to serve four years of probation and register with the state as a sexual offender for 15 years after pleading no contest to sexually assaulting a young girl in 2018.

Milton A. Elder, 50, was sentenced to serve two consecutive terms of 24 months of probation including nine months of house arrest with electronic monitoring after pleading no contest to misdemeanor charges of indecent assault and corruption of minors filed by state police.

Elder also was ordered to register with state police for 15 years as a sexual offender under Megan’s Law.

Judge Timothy McCune read a victim impact statement written by the girl, saying she is self conscious about the clothes she wears and is not comfortable wearing some clothes that she believes are too revealing.

Police charged Elder in April 2024 after a ChildLine report was filed in November 2023. He touched the girl inappropriately about 10 times, starting when she was 8 or 9 years old at his former home in Callery and continued after he moved to Beaver, police said.

At Elder’s preliminary hearing in June 2024, the girl testified that he would inappropriately touch her over her clothes and that most of the assaults took place on the living room couch. He touched her under her clothes on one occasion, she said.

Charges against Elder were dismissed at the hearing in June 2024 because he was not identified as the suspect, but the charges were refiled the following day. The charges were held for court at his second hearing in August 2024.