Retired Pa. shop teacher jailed in child-sex case


January 11, 2012 at 8:39a.m.

Retired Pa. shop teacher jailed in child-sex case

CLARION, Pa. (AP) — A retired western Pennsylvania high school shop teacher is jailed on charges he raped and otherwise had illegal sexual contact with an 11-year-old boy in 2006.

Online court records don’t list an attorney for 60-year-old Gary Lee Weckerly, of Sligo.

The Derrick of Oil City reports Wednesday that Weckerly faces a preliminary hearing Jan. 17 and has been jailed unable to post bond since his arrest Monday.

State troopers from the Clarion barracks say county child welfare workers contacted them in October about the allegations being made by the boy, who is now 16.

The boy came forward after he was counseled by a child advocacy agency in another county in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Police say Weckerly fondled the boy, performed a sex act on him, and took naked photographs of the boy.