By Clifford Ward
Special to the Tribune

A New York man remained in the DuPage County Jail Wednesday on charges that he molested the teenaged daughter of a Naperville woman he had met over the Internet.

Darren J. Kirkland, 26, of Endicott, N.Y., was being held in lieu of $100,000 bond on charges of domestic battery and aggravated criminal sexual abuse. He was charged Monday.

According to Naperville police, Kirkland had struck up an online relationship with a Naperville woman and had traveled to stay with her this weekend at her apartment. While there, he had allegedly had inappropriate contact with the woman’s daughter, who is a student at a Naperville high school, Sgt. Greg Bell said Wednesday.

Police declined to disclose her age, but the charging documents said she is between 13 and 16.

The girl brought her allegations to a police officer stationed at the school. When police went to the apartment for a well-being check, they found evidence that Kirkland had physically abused the mother, and they charged him with domestic battery, Bell said.

Kirkland is due to appear Feb. 27 before DuPage County Judge Blanche Hill Fawell, according to court records.