Photo by VERMONT STATE POLICE Johnathan Purcell, 33, of 73 Hall Road, Londonderry

In mid-November, Johnathon Purcell, then a Brookline resident, walked out of Superior Court in Nashua a free man after a jury acquitted him on four felony sexual assault charges accusing him of molesting a young girl at his home.

But Purcell, 33, now of 73 Hall Road in Londonderry, is back behind bars, held on $100,000 bail on similar charges after his arrest as a fugitive from justice this week at the U.S.-Canada border crossing in Highgate, Vermont.

The warrant for Purcell’s arrest charges him with five felony counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault – statutory rape. He was jailed at the Northwestern Correctional Center in St. Albans, Vermont, until Londonderry police picked him up and returned him to New Hampshire.

As of Friday, he was held at the Rockingham County jail in Brentwood.

Londonderry police Capt. Patrick Cheetham told news outlets Purcell allegedly fled to Canada at about the time police began investigating the case.

Cheetham said police launched the investigation April 16 upon receiving reports of the allegations against Purcell.

Because police reports and affidavits detailing the circumstances of the allegations have been sealed, the nature of the relationship between Purcell and the alleged victim or victims is not yet known, including whether the allegations involve anyone connected to the case that ended in Purcell’s acquittal in November.

Cheetham said investigators are “alleging a pattern of conduct” in the current case. He said Purcell’s arrest occurred after U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents notified Vermont state police that Purcell was “attempting to enter back into the United States with an active arrest warrant” pending out of New Hampshire.

Cheetham called the investigation and subsequent arrest “a good example of cooperation with our interstate and federal law enforcement partners.”

As for Purcell’s acquittal in November, jurors deliberated for several hours during two days before returning the four not guilty verdicts.

The trial involved testimony by a series of witnesses that included the alleged victim, a then-14-year-old girl, and Purcell himself.

The girl, a close friend of one of Purcell’s daughters, had accused Purcell of inappropriately touching and digitally penetrating her, and forcing her to touch him, around Christmas 2016, when she was 12.

She testified Purcell’s daughter had invited her to stay overnight at their house on the night the alleged incidents occurred.