A 61-year-old sex offender living with his mother in The Villages was arrested Saturday night on a charge of driving under the influence.
Edward Charles Wardingley, who lives at 1312 La Estrellita Way in the Village of Santiago, was booked at 11 p.m. Saturday at the Sumter County Detention Center. He is also charged with violating his probation. Details of the arrest were not immediately available.
Wardingley was convicted in 2018 of lewd and lascivious molestation of a victim between the ages of 12 and 15. He was sentenced to three years in prison. He moved to The Villages last year.
The original complaint from Orange County indicates that in 2018 Wardingley touched the breasts and buttocks of a 14-year-old girl with whom he had been staying while her mother was in Dallas on a business trip. The mother was monitoring the home through ADT and saw Wardingley touch the girl’s breasts. The mother came home and confronted Wardingley who reportedly had been touching the girl’s breasts and buttocks “daily” for two months. He had asked to touch the girl’s other private parts, but the girl refused. He also exposed his penis to the girl “on multiple occasions.” An investigator determined that Wardingley “intentionally and repeatedly exposed his penis to the victim when they were alone in a lewd and lascivious manner.”
Wardingley’s father died in 2019. Wardingley’s parents purchased their home in The Villages in 2000.
