Austin Wikels.jpg

Austin Christopher Wikels, 23, is accused of taking part in a sexual assault in which a woman said she was handcuffed to a bed against her will and forced to perform a sex act on a woman.

(Dauphin County Judicial Center)

A Halifax Township man is accused of taking part in the sexual assault of a woman, who told state police she was handcuffed to a bed against her will and forced to perform a sexual act on another woman.

Austin Christopher Wikels, 23, is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail in Dauphin County Prison. He was arraigned Tuesday night on charges that include aggravated indecent assault by forcible compulsion, a second-degree felony.

Charging documents state that the woman, who is in her 20s, told state police that she and Wikels were in a room April 14 at the Red Rose Motel in Halifax Township. At one point, the woman said Wikels rubbed her shoulders and said, “I have a surprise for you later.”

Around 7:30 p.m., a man and another woman arrived at the motel room and greeted Wikels as “Gina,” the woman told state police. State police Trooper Matthew Yingst, the lead investigator, described Wikels as a “cross dresser who regularly portrays himself as ‘Gina Gessner,’” according to charging documents.

Those charging documents also detail the following account of the incident:

The woman who arrived asked to use the restroom. She then unloaded “multiple explicit items” from her bag. They were: a leather horsewhip, a ruler-like piece of wood, a 1/4- to-1/2-inch-thick wooden rod that measured approximately 3 feet in length, and another leather whip with straps on the end.

The sight of the items led to a physical struggle between the woman who arrived and the alleged victim. She then said she was forced down on a bed by the man who arrived, stripped naked and handcuffed to the headboard.

She was then sexually assaulted and later forced to perform a sex act on the woman, she told state police.

Wikels, who was wearing a padded bra and fluorescent-colored thong during the alleged assault, also hit the woman with the wooden rod, she told state police.

Yingst in charging documents noted the woman suffered substantial bruising on both her left and right wrists from the handcuffs. She also told state police she was kicked once in the face and hit numerous times in the head.

Moreover, the woman estimated that she asked her attackers to stop approximately 50 to 60 times and told them she was scared. She also told state police that she believed the incident was prearranged and said “she was in hell and couldn’t do anything to stop it.”

Charging documents filed Monday state the man and woman accused of participating in the assault with Wikels were still unknown. Yingst, the trooper investigating the case, was not immediately available for comment Friday.

Wikels initially ignored a request to come in for an interview with state police, Yingst said in charging documents. He also hung up on the trooper when reached on his cellphone, Yingst said.

Wikels has a preliminary court hearing scheduled for June 9 before Magisterial District Judge Gregory D. Johnson.