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Man arrested for sexual assault on Pittsburgh’s North Side

PITTSBURGH — A man is behind bars at the Allegheny County Jail after being charged in a violent attack and rape on the North Side early Saturday morning. Dillon Jolly is also accused of committing two additional sexual assaults on July 30 and Aug. 3, also in the East Allegheny neighborhood of the North Side. A woman who works nearby tells Channel 11 she is disgusted by these attacks.

“It’s terrible that no women are safe,” she says. “All of this needs to stop. We should be able to feel safe.”

The victim from Saturday morning tells police the man approached her on East Ohio and Middle streets, asking for a sex act. She tells police he wouldn’t take no for an answer. The victim told police she ran from East Ohio Street into the Emlin Street alley to get away from her alleged rapist, but she says he followed her into a garage under construction.

She tells police that’s when he pulled her by her hair and choked her. The victim said she couldn’t breathe and was raped.  Court paperwork says Jolly told her that “he would kill her and nobody would ever find her if she didn’t comply.”

Jolly was found with his distinct motorcycle and specific outfit at a Sunoco just blocks away. Detectives say a man in the surveillance video from the time of the first two sex assaults matches Jolly’s description. Court paperwork says the third victim and a friend of the first victim identified Jolly as the attacker in the gas station parking lot.

In 2017, Jolly was also charged with three counts of luring a child in Washington County. In that case, three underage victims told police on different occasions Jolly followed them and asked, “Do you want a ride?” Police say Jolly stalked a victim “while she was alone.” Jolly was able to take a plea and have the child luring charges dismissed. That news didn’t sit well with women on the North Side.

“Give him life,” a woman tells Channel 11. “He’s never to get released ever again. That’s how I feel. People like that need to be seeing life in prison.”

As for the recent, early morning sex assaults in East Allegheny, that woman shares this advice for others:

“Just be safe,” she says. “Have some type of weapon — a little knife you can carry, pepper spray — and be careful and be safe.”

Jolly is in jail and unable to post $50,000 bond.

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