Former Belmont Co. man gets life in prison for raping child

BELMONT COUNTY, Ohio --

A man who lived in Barnesville for a short time was sentenced to life in prison for raping a child.


Steven Spoon, 19, pleaded guilty to one count of rape of a child age 10-13 and two counts of pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor.


In July, while Spoon was living in Richmond, Va., the Sexual Predator Internet Initiative Task Force said Spoon was searching the Internet for child pornography.


Spoon returned to Belmont County to turn himself in. After further investigation, officers learned Spoon raped a child.


"In this particular case, we started out just with the download of child pornography then it evolved into this person being an actor with a live victim. Otherwise, this would have never been reported or gone undetected altogether," said Chief Tim Zdanski of the SPII Task Force.


Spoon apologized in court to all of the people he hurt.


"I can't take back what I did. I wish I really could, and I'm sorry for putting my family though stress and the girls that went through it. I just want to say that I'm really sorry for everything I did," Spoon said.


Spoon's attorney asked for leniency because of his age.


"At 19, I think it's difficult for us to come to a definite conclusion that he has a settled character trait of being a pedophile," Spoon's attorney said.


Prosecutor Chris Berhalter disagreed, saying, "I don't see people being 'fixed' from this. I think someone that has a predisposition to molest children and enjoy child pornography isn't going to get better."

    
Spoon will be eligible for parole in 13 years. If he is eventually released from prison, he will have to register as a Tier 3 sex offender for the rest of his life.


Berhalter said, "This defendant was discovered. He was stopped, and here today he was held accountable for what he has done. And fortunately the public can be assured that he will have no future victims as he received a sentence of life in prison."