Fairfax Police: Man Molested Wife's Piano Pupils

A former Fairfax County man who moved to Australia has been arrested for molesting two girls when they were taking piano lessons from his then-wife between 1998 and 2001, Fairfax police said Monday.

Police did not learn of the allegations until February, when a 17-year-old told police she had been sexually abused by the man when she was 7. She said the incidents occurred between April 1998 and April 1999 during her weekly piano lessons in the 5700 block of Wood Creek Lane in the Sully Station area of Centreville.

While detectives were investigating those allegations, they said they found a second teenager, 19, who also said her teacher's husband had abused her, sometime between December 2000 and January 2001, when she was 11.

The man, George D. Copping, moved out of the couples' Wood Creek Lane house after they divorced, Fairfax Officer Bud Walker said Monday. Police obtained warrants for Copping, now 71, on charges of aggravated sexual battery.

When Copping flew back to the United States on Sept. 17, landing at Los Angeles International Airport, a computer check revealed the warrants against him and Los Angeles police arrested him, Walker said. He was extradited to Fairfax on Sept. 30.