A Missouri man has been arrested and charged with sexually assaulting girls in his care as a foster parent for decades.
A probable cause statement says that the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office launched an investigation into Ronald Graham Jr in December when one of the alleged victims reported the abuse, according to Lincoln News Now.
In the course of the investigation, several more victims came forward and alleged that Graham, 59, subjected them to sex acts both at his home and on trips, some as far back as 1995.
And this wasn’t first time Graham had been investigated for inappropriate contact with children in his care. According to the probable cause statement, the sheriff’s office had investigated him for inappropriate sexual contact with children in his charge.
“Children’s Division has previously found proof by a preponderance of evidence that the suspect has sexually abused a minor child in his home,” one officer wrote in the documents, according to KTVI.
Yet Graham, a state-certified and licensed foster parent, has had at least 42 foster children over the years, has formally adopted several children — and had three minor foster children at the time of his arrest.
Graham has been charged with one court of first-degree aggravated sexual abuse, one count of first-degree statutory sodomy with a person less than 14-years-old, one count of first-degree aggravate child molestation, two counts of second-degree statutory rape, four counts of statutory second-degree statutory sodomy, and one count of fourth-degree molestation of a child less than 17-years-old when the offender is more than four years older.
He’s being held on a $1 million cash bond.
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[Featured image: Ronald Graham Jr/Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office]
