NORWICH – Following more than four hours of jury selection, the trial of 24-year-old Tommy Kessinger Sr. began Tuesday afternoon with opening statements by the prosecution and defense, as well as testimony from the parents of the four-year-old boy he stands accused of sexually abusing in 2011.

Kessinger was indicted last April on charges of first degree sexual abuse, a class D felony, and endangering the welfare of a child, an A misdemeanor. The prosecution alleges Kessinger – who was living with his girlfriend, Sonya Wilson, at her brother and his fiancée’s residence – touched the other couple’s four-year-old son inappropriately after the child’s bath, while he and Wilson were babysitting.

According to First Assistant District Attorney Stephen Dunshee, the prosecution will present evidence today in the form of a 39-minute DVD recording, during which Kessinger not only waives his Miranda Rights, but admits to the crime “more than a dozen” times. And while the jury alone will decide Kessinger’s innocence or guilt, Dunshee said he was “confident the defendant will be held responsible for his actions.”

Defense attorney John Cameron stressed to the members of the jury it’s important they understand Dunshee’s – and his own – opening statement is not evidence. The burden of proof, he added, beyond a reasonable doubt, lies with the prosecution.