A South Bristol man faces nine sex charges in connection with alleged crimes in Newcastle involving a 12-year-old.

The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office on Jan. 6 arrested Brian Merryman, 38, and charged him with with nine counts of gross sexual assault, class A.  The charges stem from detectives’ investigation into allegations that Merryman sexually assaulted a child in Newcastle in 2013 when the child was 12.

Merryman was convicted in 1996 of unlawful sexual contact and later convicted of failing to register as a sex offender and prohibited contact with a person under 14 years of age.

Due to a court ruling, Merryman was removed from the Maine Sex Offender Registry in June 2015; he is no longer required to register.

In addition to the new sex charges, he was also arrested on a failure to appear warrant for a traffic offense.  Merryman was booked at Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset.

He remained at the jail Jan. 11, in lieu of $50,000 cash bail, jail staff said.