97. DeLand man charged with sexually abusing two small children

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DELAND -- Volusia County Sheriff's investigators arrested a 57-year-old DeLand man in November after he was accused of sexually abusing two young children he was caring for.

David Barberi was charged with two counts of sexual battery and two counts of child abuse. The complaint against the 57-year-old Barberi was lodged during a call to the Sheriff's Office on Nov. 19, shortly before 9 that Friday night.

Here is a synopsis of what happened, according to Sheriff's investigators: The two children -- a 3-year-old boy and 6-year-old girl -- had gone to spend the night at Barberi's residence on Ayesbury Circle just north of DeLand. A couple hours later, a family member went to Barberi's residence to drop off some medicine for one of the children. When she got there, Barberi was in his underwear. One of the children was naked, the other was putting on her clothes and a sex toy was out in plain view. The relative collected the children and left, went home to talk to them to find out what had happened and then called the Sheriff's Office.

Barberi showered with the children, performed sex acts on them, showed them pornographic movies on his computer and even had the two children perform sex acts on each other, according to his arrest affidavit.

And they said this wasn't the first time. The children said the abuse had been going on for some time, but that they were afraid to tell because Barberi told them he would go to jail if they said anything, Sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson said, adding the children also said that Barberi had used his cell phone to take pictures of them with their clothes off. A physical examination of the girl confirmed injuries consistent with being sexually abused.