Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin P. Holihan announced a Catasauqua woman awaiting trial on charges of rape of a child is now also charged with intimidating a witness or victim.

The woman will not be named by The Press in order to protect the child.

The woman, 41, is charged with a felony count of intimidation of a witness. The charge was held for Lehigh County Common Pleas Court after a preliminary hearing Sept. 9. Her bail in that case is set at $50,000.

She is also awaiting trial on charges of conspiracy/rape of a child, trafficking in individuals–recruit/entice/solicit, sexual exploitation of children and simple assault. The victim in those previously charged cases is the same victim in the newest charge against the woman.

At the time of the child rape investigation in 2024, the victim was 12 years old.

After the woman’s arrest in the child rape investigation, she was sent to Lehigh County Jail on $350,000 bail.

While she was held in jail Feb. 9-June 6, she allegedly both called and used her jail-issued tablet to communicate with the victim, despite being ordered by Lehigh County Children and Youth not to communicate with the victim.

The woman allegedly also used another inmate’s tablet to contact the victim and asked the victim to tell authorities they lied about the child rape investigation and not to cooperate so she could be released from jail.