A home remodeling star was arrested Monday and charged with sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl at his Old Lyme home in November, state police said.
Christopher Dionne, 36, of Village Lane, was charged with fourth-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a child.
Dionne was filming the A&E show “House Rescue” in California during a portion of the police investigation, according to a warrant for his arrest.
“In light of the allegations which just came to light, we are suspending production on the series,” Dan Silberman, senior vice president of publicity for A&E said in an emailed statement. The show is not yet listed in A&E’s online programming schedule.
According to the warrant for his arrest, Dionne allegedly assaulted the child at his home in the early morning hours of Nov. 26.
The victim told investigators she had been asleep and was awakened with Dionne’s hand on her buttocks. When she rolled to her side, Dionne allegedly lifted her shirt and began touching her breast, the warrant said. The victim told police Dionne took pictures of the incident, that Dionne was in his boxer shorts and that he asked her if she wanted to touch his penis, to which she responded no, the warrant said.
After the incident, Dionne allegedly told the victim “Don’t tell your mom, I’ll go to jail and [my daughter] won’t have a daddy,” the warrant said. The victim also disclosed that a similar incident had occurred in September, the warrant said.
When the victim went home later in the day on Nov. 26, she told her mother and her mother reported it to police the following morning, the warrant said.
According to the warrant, Dionne was filming “House Rescue” in California when police visited his home on Nov. 30. That day, police spoke to his wife, who said Dionne had gone out Nov. 25 with friends and she did not remember when Dionne had got home but that he was in the couple’s bed by the time she woke up which was around 5 or 6 a.m., the warrant said.
Dionne called police from California and said that when he got home on Nov. 26, around 1 a.m., the victim was awake on the couch so he went and sat next to her, the warrant said. He allegedly told police that the victim was lying down and put her arm around his waist and began to rub his stomach.
Dionne said he became uncomfortable so he moved her arm and said “that’s inappropriate,” the warrant said. Dionne stated the victim did it again and that he again moved her arm and told her “that was big-girl stuff.”
Dionne said the victim turned and began to cry and that he rubbed her back and told her to go to sleep, the warrant said.
Dionne told police he would be returning to Connecticut on Dec. 22, and that “he was very concerned about [the incident] going public because of all the stories in the media and the fact that he is on TV,” the warrant said.
In an emailed statement to The Courant, HGTV said that Dionne had appeared as a host in a pilot show called “Family Flip” more than two years ago.
“The person you reference in your inquiry appeared in a pilot that premiered on our network more than 2-1/2 years ago. The pilot was not picked up for series and is no longer on our air,” HGTV said.
