Molester sentenced to 35 years in prison
A 50-year-old COLUMBUS — man who raped children being cared for by a woman he lived with was sentenced Monday to 35 years in prison.
Kenneth E. Kilgore, of the West Side of Columbus, pleaded guilty in August to three counts of rape, two counts of importuning and two counts of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles.
He admitted to engaging in sex acts with three children, as well as soliciting two children by offering them money or beer if they engaged in sex acts with him and showing pornography to two other children.
Kilgore rented a room on South Richardson Avenue from a grandmother who watched her grandchildren and other children, sometimes overnight. The crimes took place between August 2012 and July 2016 and involved children ranging in age from 6 to 12.
Two mothers tearfully addressed the court, asking Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Michael J. Holbrook for the maximum sentence, which would have been 42 years.
One said Kilgore preyed upon two of her children.
“They’re no longer allowed to be normal kids,” she said. “He took their innocence away. I’m asking for the max, because they have to live with this for the rest of their lives.”
The other said her daughter “is not the same little girl that she used to be.”
Nine children who had contact with Kilgore were interviewed by police. Seven — six girls and a boy — reported sexual contact by him.
Kilgore declined to make a statement in court.
Assistant Prosecutor Kara Keating said Kilgore has shown no remorse and blamed his actions on alcoholism, telling police he didn’t remember some of the incidents because he was so drunk at the time.
“This is not a one-time offense,” she told the judge. “This was multiple times on multiple dates and in multiple ways ... The victims have suffered serious psychological harm. They will likely never fully recover from what the defendant did to them.”
Defense attorney Mark Hunt said his client deserved some credit for pleading guilty and sparing the children from testifying during a trial.
The judge told the mothers that the law wouldn’t allow him to impose the maximum, but they seemed satisfied with 35 years.
One stood at the end of the hearing and told the judge, “I just want to say thank you.”