Man faces child sexual abuse charges

Cd’A man with $250,000 bail will have evidence hearings next week

A jailed 67-year-old Coeur d’Alene man who is charged with sexual exploitation of a minor and child sexual abuse will have his preliminary hearing next week.

The probable cause hearing for Timothy E. Durkin is set Tuesday in Coeur d’Alene’s First District Court while Durkin remains behind bars on $250,000 bail.

Durkin is accused of soliciting sexually explicit images from a 9-year-old, including video images and still photos, detectives said, over a period of several weeks in February and March.

Durkin was arrested April 1 on a warrant after police confiscated his cellphones for a forensic check and found the images and videos, according to a report.

Detectives were tipped off by the 9-year-old’s mother, who had purchased the girl a cellphone for Christmas. She learned Durkin had told the child to delete the images they exchanged, as well as their correspondence, according to reports.

Kootenai County prosecutors charged Durkin with sexual abuse of a child, sexual exploitation of a child by possession of sexually exploitative material, and disseminating harmful materials to minors, all felonies that can carry sentences of up to life in prison.

Authorities told a judge that Durkin had been under investigation for lewd conduct with a minor in 2014, and two years ago police were called to Durkin’s Coeur d’Alene residence after a caller reported a man masturbating while watching a mother play with her children next door.

Officers could not determine who the man was because many people were staying at Durkin’s house at the time, according to a report.

Durkin’s next court hearing, a preliminary hearing status conference, is Tuesday and a preliminary hearing is scheduled at 1:30 p.m. Thursday in Coeur d’Alene.