A Philadelphia man and registered sex offender has been convicted of attacking a Bensalem woman in her apartment last year.
Following a bench trial Sept. 23, Bucks County Common Pleas Judge Wallace Bateman Jr. found Louis Sophie, 46, guilty of three felony charges, including burglary. He was also convicted of related misdemeanors, such as two counts of attempted indecent assault.
Bateman deferred sentencing until next year, pending Pennsylvania Sexual Offender Assessment Board evaluation. But the burglary charges alone are first-degree felonies that each carry a potential maximum 20-year prison sentence.
Sophie was arrested in October 2025 after he entered the
unlocked apartment of a woman at Lafayette Gardens in Bensalem, which sits on the Philadelphia border.
The woman said that she forgot to lock her front door after returning home and that when she was in her bedroom changing clothes she heard her Ring camera sound, according to police.
She said she thought the person at the door was her son, who she planned to go out with that night, but instead she found a shoeless, half-dressed stranger in her living room.
The woman alleged that the man, later identified as Sophie, looked at her and said, “Oh, you look tasty,” and he began to undress and grabbed her, police alleged.
She screamed for neighbors to call 911, and Sophie ran out of the apartment, but was detained at a nearby gas station until police took him into custody.
While he was in custody, Sophie said he didn’t remember much about what happened, other than he was at a friend’s house, then under arrest, police said.
Sophie said he also remembered telling a woman that he was mentally challenged. He told police his disability is why he sometimes can’t remember things, according to court documents.
A record search for Sophie after he was in police custody turned up that he is a registered sex offender in Florida.
He was convicted of possessing child pornography in 2005 in Broome County, New York, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement sexual offender/predator registry.
In April 2018, Sophie was arrestedin Broome County after he allegedly undressed himself and went after two neighbors while armed with a knife, according to a media report.
He was charged with felony weapons possession and misdemeanor menacing, but the outcome of the case wasn't immediately known Sept. 23.
Sophie remains incarcerated in Bucks County Correctional Center in lieu of $1-million bail.
Crime and courts reporter Jo Ciavaglia can be reached at jciavaglia@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Man convicted of breaking into Bensalem apartment, attacking woman
