Fayette man's Virginia confession results in guilty plea to sex charges

A former Fayette County man will serve up to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting a girl 20 years ago.

Lawrence Wesley Henry Jr., 50, formerly of Normalville and East Huntingdon, will serve his prison sentence in Virginia, where he first confessed to his crime in Westmoreland County following a 2018 arrest on charges he attempted to have sex with teen girl near Roanoke.

Henry, according to court records, was arrested when he drove to Virginia to have sex with a juvenile he met online. In reality, investigators said Henry communicated with a police officer posing as a child as part of a sting operation. While in custody in Virginia, Henry confessed to having sexually assaulted a juvenile in Pennsylvania in the early 2000s.

Westmoreland County investigators traveled to Virginia to hear Henry’s confession, in which he claimed he repeatedly assaulted the teen, who was 14 or 15 at the time, at an East Huntingdon home where he lived with the victim’s mother, prosecutors said.

Police eventually located the alleged victim, who by then was in her 30s. She claimed Henry was a heavy drinker who would assault her when he was drunk as she pretended to sleep, according to court records.

Henry on Tuesday pleaded guilty to four felony counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. Twenty additional charges, including counts of aggravated indecent assault, sexual assault and criminal solicitation, were dismissed.

Westmoreland County Judge Scott Mears sentenced Henry to serve 5 to 10 years in prison and an additional five years on probation. That sentence will run concurrent to a 20-year sentence imposed in 2018 by a Virginia judge in connection with the child luring case.

According to court records, half of Henry’s Virginia sentence was suspended, meaning he will only be required to serve up to a decade behind bars.

As of Wednesday, Henry remained in Westmoreland County Prison but was expected to be transferred back to the Bedford County Adult Detention Center in Virginia to continue serving his sentence.