Man jailed on rape charges
SANDPOINT — A former Bonner County man has been arrested on allegations that he carried on sexual relationships with underage boys in Idaho and another state.
Christopher Panagiotou-Scigliano is charged in Bonner County with two counts of lewd conduct, two counts of statutory rape, two counts of sexual exploitation of a child and two counts of sexual battery. Panagiotou-Scigliano is under investigation in the other state, according to court documents.
The Daily Bee does not identify victims in sexual abuse cases and is omitting certain details — such as specific ages and geographic locations — which could be used to identify the alleged victims in these cases.
Panagiotou-Scigliano, 38, fell under scrutiny in March, after an alleged victim, a teen, disclosed the abuse in order to stop Panagiotou-Scigliano from sexually abusing other boys, a probable cause affidavit said. The teen said the abuse occurred in Bonner County and when he visited Panagiotou-Scigliano in the other state in 2019.
In a separate case, Panagiotou-Scigliano is accused of sexually abusing another teen in Bonner County and the other state during the spring of 2019. The teen told a forensic interviewer that Panagiotou-Scigliano appeared to be grooming him and the abuse escalated over time.
There are other underage boys named in court documents as potentially additional victims.
Panagiotou-Scigliano was arrested in the other state in September and returned to Idaho to face the charges. A search warrant enabled authorities there to seize mobile phones and digital storage devices as Panagiotou-Scigliano allegedly convinced one of the teens to take an inappropriate photo and participate in an inappropriate video.
Judge Lori Meulenberg ordered Panagiotou-Scigliano held in lieu of $200,000 bail when he made an initial appearance in Bonner County Magistrate Court via videoconferencing on Nov. 23. Bail in the second case was not immediately available in court documents.
Preliminary hearings in the cases are pending.
Keith Kinnaird can be reached at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com or followed on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.