GREENFIELD — A judge ordered that a man convicted of child molest must spend 40 years in prison — the maximum punishment allowed by law for the crimes he was found guilty of committing.
Calling Ryan Dudley “a predator and a pedophile,” Hancock County’s chief deputy prosecutor asked for the four-decade sentence during a hearing Thursday afternoon, arguing that his actions deserve the most severe punishment allowed.
The 32-year-old man from Wilkinson was found guilty of repeatedly sexually assaulting two young sisters who he lived with. The girls detailed the abuse before a Hancock County jury during a trial in Hancock Circuit Court last month.
It took jurors less than 15 minutes to return the verdict.
Marie Castetter, the county’s chief deputy prosecutor, told the judge she believed Dudley needed to be locked away for a long time because he’s dangerous.
Other children, she said, have accused Dudley of harming them; his name appears in several case files and police reports from other counties, though criminal charges related to those allegations were never filed.
The girls who came forward in Hancock County in March 2017 appear to be Dudley’s fifth and sixth victims, Castetter said. And their accusations against Dudley mirror the ones brought forward by other children, she said.
“How it got to victims five and six, I don’t know. I’m appalled.” Castetter said the judge. “But victims five and six deserve justice.”
Dudley denies the girls’ allegations; and his defense attorney, Sean Row of New Castle, told the judge Thursday that he thought it was inappropriate for the prosecutor to bring up allegations that never resulted in criminal filings.
Row admitted his client did have one sexual-assault related case on his record — the man pleaded guilty to sexual battery in 2010 and served time on probation — but he asked the judge not the take the prosecutor’s comments into account when deciding the sentence.
Dudley was convicted of one Level 3 felony and two Level 4 felonies. Hancock Circuit Court Judge Scott Sirk ordered the man serve the maximum allotted sentence on each count, and then stacked the counts on top of one another.
Dudley will spend 16 years in prison for the Level 3 felony count; and 12 years in prison for each of the Level 4 felony counts, for a total of 40 years behind bars.
Dudley’s trial lasted three days.
Two sisters told jurors that Dudley had forced them to engage in sexual acts on the few times they were left alone with him, according to court documents. Dudley lived with the girls’ father; and the father sometimes relied on Dudley as a last-minute babysitter if a relative suddenly wasn’t available to watch the children.
The girls’ mother spoke during Dudley’s sentencing hearing, telling the judge that her daughters have brightened since testifying.
“It’s like they’ve had a huge weight lifted off their shoulders,” the woman said.
But the abuse still affects the girls, their mother said. For example, they both have a hard time saying the defendant’s name, even it’s just to refer to a young classmate who is also named Ryan, she said.
The girls didn’t come to the sentencing hearing; but they wrote letters to the judge expressing their opinions on what Dudley’s sentence should be.
Castetter read the letters aloud in court from bits of notebook paper covered in colorful scribbles.
“I really wish that jerk was dead,” one of the girls wrote. “But since he’s not dead, can he be locked away for a long time? I don’t want him to hurt anyone else.”
“Thank you for listening to me and my sister,” the other girl wrote to the judge, before adding about Dudley, “He needs to be in there for 4,000 years.”
Dudley could be in his 70s when he’s released from prison, and he’ll have to register as a sex offender for the rest of this life.
He’s been ordered never to have contact with the two girls.