YOUNGSTOWN — A girl who alleged she is the victim of sex crimes committed by Dustin Ruiter, 46, testified Tuesday that Ruiter started to engage in sex acts with her when she was about 15.

The offenses — including rape — lasted about six months, she said.

Ruiter, 46, whose last address was in Youngstown, went on trial Monday before Judge Anthony D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Opening statements and testimony took place Tuesday.

The acts began in December 2018, and Ruiter told the girl sexual intercourse with him would “help her” with her acne, she testified. She said she didn’t tell anyone about the offenses until June 2019 when she told a woman who owned an Austintown thrift store where the girl volunteered.

“I trusted her because something needed to be done because it kept going and going and going,” the girl testified of the store owner. The day she disclosed the alleged offenses, she did not bathe and did not change her underwear from the previous day so she could preserve evidence of the rape that had taken place, she testified.

Ruiter is charged with 33 counts of rape, 21 of them involving the forceful rape of the first girl to testify. The other 12 counts involve the forceful rape of a girl a year or two younger. Ruiter also is charged with 33 counts of sexual battery, 21 of them involving the oldest girl and 12 involving a younger girl.

The rape charges are all first-degree felonies, which each carry a prison sentence of about 10 years, meaning Ruiter could get about 300 years in prison if convicted.

Ruiter also is charged with six counts of gross sexual imposition, which involves touching. Those charges each relate to the first two girls and two involve a girl another year or so younger.

During cross examination by attorney Bradley Olsen, who represents Ruiter, the girl on the witness stand Tuesday said she did not report the abuse earlier because she wasn’t confident agencies that investigate child abuse would believe her.

The girl agreed she never told the pastor at the church she was attending, nor anyone at the Youngstown school she attended.

Olsen also cross examined her on whether she told children services officials that she put her underwear in a bag — but was now testifying that she continued to wear them the next day. The girl said she did not remember.

During opening trial statements, Caitlyn Andrews, county assistant prosecutor, said Ruiter “committed wicked and disgusting crimes. He sexually abused (the girls) over a period of months.”

But Olsen said the case against Ruiter “will wind you down a river of deceit, and that deceit was perpetuated by a child who had a motive.”

Olsen said interviews with the girl and two younger alleged victims were done at the Child Advocacy Center in Boardman. “It doesn’t sound too neutral,” Olsen said of the name of the facility.

Olsen said the trial will provide “nothing to substantiate” the girls’ rape claims. Even DNA evidence that will be presented should be viewed skeptically, Olsen said.

The woman who owned the thrift store testified Tuesday that the oldest girl disclosed to her June 20, 2019, that Ruiter was raping her. The woman said the alleged victim disclosed that Ruiter committed a sex offense against her the night before and many times before.

The woman said she and her husband also took the girl to church many times over about six months preceding the disclosure.

The trial resumes today.