WILTON – A Phillips teenager was charged Tuesday night with six counts of gross sexual assault on three children under age 6. The 15-year-old boy was taken to Charleston youth detention center after his arrest.

The boy allegedly molested two girls and a boy, ages 5, 4 and 2, while he was watching them or playing with them, Franklin County Sheriff’s Detective David St. Laurent said. A 5-year-old girl had complained that the teenager inappropriately touched her, he said.

Wilton police officer Robert Cole received a complaint Tuesday from a family and started an investigation, Wilton Police Chief James Parker said. He called in St. Laurent, the county’s sexual assault investigator, to help him.

Through a joint investigation, St. Laurent said, the 15-year-old, a friend of the family’s, allegedly confessed to sexually assaulting the children at sites in Wilton and Phillips.

Cole arrested the boy and charged him with three counts of gross sexual assault, Parker said. The Franklin County Sheriff’s Department charged him with three counts of gross sexual assault, St. Laurent said.

Cole worked through the night investigating the case, Parker said, and didn’t go home until 6 a.m. Wednesday.

dperry@sunjournal.com