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A north county man is headed to jail after a jury convicted him of molesting a child.

Richard Williams was found guilty of five charges in all. Williams molested the child, who was under twelve when the abuse occurred, between 2010 and 2011.

Prosecutors say Williams was friends with one of the child's grandparents. 

 

LAKE ST. LOUIS, Mo. (AP) - A former St. Louis-area teacher is facing charges accusing him of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old student.

Prosecutors say 34-year-old Joseph Thomas Maddock of Lake St. Louis is charged with statutory sodomy.

He is jailed on $50,000 cash-only bond.

Authorities say Maddock, a former teacher at Andrews Academy, convinced the parents of the victim to allow him to home-school him.

Maddock has taught at 10 schools in the St. Louis metropolitan area since 2001. Anyone with additional information about the suspect is urged to contact Lake St. Louis police.

 

A Lincoln County man has admitted to hitting a three year-old-girl girl while he was coming down from a heroin high, but denied allegations that he sexually assaulted her.

Daniel Kittle said he was irritated with his girlfriend's daughter and punched her twice in the head. KSDK reports that medical personnel examined the girl and found injuries to the girl's genitals in addition to bruising to the girl's face. Kittle denied having sexual contact with the girl.

He has been charged with both assault and molestation and is held on a $200,000 bond. 

A Lemay family is reeling from news that a Crestwood man is accused of molesting a 4-year-old girl.

33-year-old Andrew Bullard is accused of trying to have sex with the toddler sometime between June of 2011 and October of 2012. Bullard is held on a $50,000 bond.

BELLEVILLE, Ill. (AP) - A Roman Catholic priest whose decades-old molestation of a former altar boy led to a $6.3 million payout in an Illinois lawsuit has been kicked out of the priesthood by Pope Benedict XVI.

Diocese of Belleville Bishop Edward Braxton announced the move involving 78-year-old Raymond Kownacki in a statement published in a recent edition of the diocesan newspaper, The Messenger. Braxton says the papal decree calls the defrocking "for the good of the church."

Kownacki is living in a St. Louis-area nursing home and has refused media requests for interviews. He has not been charged criminally.

Kownacki's misdeeds resulted in a $5 million jury award against the diocese to James Wisniewski in 2008. That payout grew to $6.3 million to reflect interest that accrued while the diocese appealed.