A judge ruled Wednesday that a man’s confession that he molested a young female family member roughly six years ago can be used in court.

District Court Judge Michael Malone found that the 35-year-old man was not technically in custody when Lawrence Police interviewed him this spring and he admitted touching the girl inappropriately sometime around the summer of 2000. Police read him a Miranda warning as a precaution, even though Malone found the law didn’t require it.

The girl was roughly 8 years old at the time of the alleged crime, but she told Officer Mike Verbanic that she didn’t know it was wrong until years later, after she took a health class in school, according to court records.

Because of that, the girl’s sex-education curriculum from the Lawrence school district could be entered into evidence.

The Parkville, Mo., man is charged with aggravated indecent liberties with a child and aggravated criminal sodomy. He lived in Lawrence at the time of the alleged crime.

He is due back in court Oct. 27. His attorney, Sarah Swain, is seeking to dismiss the charges against him, claiming it’s too late to file them because of a five-year statute of limitations.

But Assistant Dist. Atty. Amy McGowan argues the statute of limitations doesn’t apply when the victim is under 15 and, at the time, was unable to determine that the acts were a crime.