A Florida man trying to get a job as a police officer blurts out that he sexually assaulted a 9-year-old girl during an interview

• Stephen Bodley, 26, was convicted of sexual abuse last week
• He first informed the authorities about his crime during a job interview as a police officer

A Florida man who was trying to become a police officer landed himself in prison after admitting during the hiring process that he had sexually assaulted a 9-year-old girl.

Stephen Roland Bodley, 26, heavily incriminated himself during a 2021 interview with Apopka police in which he admitted to behavior that led to a felony conviction at trial in Orange County, Florida, last week.

Bodley was convicted of sexually assaulting a child under 12 when the defendant was under 18.

The young man was found guilty largely based on confessions he had previously made during his police application process – although he denied in court that he had committed the abuse.

Prosecutors told a jury: “On June 16, 2021, Bodley interviewed with the Apopka Police Department for a position for which he had applied as a sworn police officer.” The certified voice stress analysis examiner conducted a voice stress examination on Bodley.

“During the exam, the examiner asked Bodley to elaborate on the answers he had given in a pre-test questionnaire.

“In it, Bodley described the sexual abuse of a child several years ago. He also admitted the same thing when the examiner asked him to explain further.”

According to prosecutors, Bodley admitted to abusing the teenage victim “three times.”

According to an affidavit filed in support of Bodley’s arrest, the abuse allegedly occurred between 2012 and 2016, when the defendant was 12 to 13 years old.

In a questionnaire Bodley filled out during the application process, he said he did so when asked if he had ever “sexually assaulted anyone.”

He also wrote that the assaults took place at his home in Apopka.

According to the affidavit, he wrote that when he was 12 to 13 years old, he “played sex games with (redacted) and she didn’t fully understand what was happening.”

The Voice Stress examiner asked Bodley to elaborate on the claims he had made in the questionnaire, which he did.

He then described the disturbing “little sexual games” he played with a younger female member of his family.

“She didn’t really know what was going on, and I used to watch porn a lot, so I had a bit of an addiction as a kid,” he said.

He repeatedly made it clear that he knew what he was doing at the time, while the victim did not.

The victim’s mother, contacted by police, said she had known Bodley “since he was a baby” and never suspected him of committing such horrific acts.

“She stated that defendant Bodley had a personal interest in her daughter but thought it was a normal family relationship,” court documents state.

The abuse victim initially said she couldn’t remember anything, but eventually recalled “the assaults, as Bodley described them, in his bedroom when she was about 10 years old.”

“The victim stated that it happened several times on different days in the defendant’s room.”

Police officers ultimately concluded that “based on the victim’s statements, defendant Bodley was well into his teenage years when he began sexually abusing the child.” This behavior continued throughout his teenage years and into adulthood.

“A reasonable teenager would know that this behavior was unacceptable, which was confirmed by defendant Bodley’s disclosure before the test interview that he knew he was taking advantage of his behavior and that she did not or would not have understood what he was doing to her .”

Bodley is due back in court for his hearing on June 24.