7th man arrested in sex abuse case at NH youth detention center

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - New Hampshire police have arrested a seventh man in connection with sex abuse allegations at the state’s youth detention center.

Former Sununu Youth Services Center supervisor Gordon Thomas Searles was arrested Thursday and charged with one count of rape.

Searles is accused in a lawsuit last year of responding to a bruised and crying teenager’s abuse allegations by saying, “Look little fella, that just doesn’t happen.”

Searles is being held without bail in Florida. It’s unclear whether he has an attorney.

Six former workers at the center were charged Wednesday with sexually assaulting youth at the Manchester facility or acting as accomplices to abuse from 1994 to 2005. 

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