SALISBURY — A Mount Hope Church Road man has been charged with molesting an 11-year-old child and having sex with a dog.
Matthew Darrell Curtner, 29, was in the Rowan County jail under a $1 million bond Thursday evening.
He is charged with three counts of first-degree sex offense of a child, crime against nature-bestiality and cruelty to an animal by torture, all felonies.
The Rowan County Sheriff’s Office and Department of Social Services went to Curtner’s home Wednesday to investigate allegations he had molested an 11-year-old girl, a press release said.
According to the press release, the 29-year-old Curtner admitted he had been molesting the girl for several months and had tried to rape her.
Saying he “wanted to be honest about his problems,” Curtner also told Sheriff’s Detective Clint Mauldin that he had been having sex with a female dog at the home, the Sheriff’s Office said in the press release.
Curtner told authorities he had committed other sexual offenses with animals “quite often,” the press release said, and that some had been committed “over the last 20 years.”
Detectives are continuing to investigate the case further charges are expected, the press release said.
Rowan Sheriff’s Capt. John Sifford called the bestiality charge “fairly rare.”
“I’ve seen it previously at least once, but it’s relatively rare,” Sifford said. “It’s certainly not something you see everyday.”
Medical examinations are scheduled for other children with whom Curtner has had contact recently, the Sheriff’s Office said.