Share and Follow
George Lightkep was first sentenced to life in prison for child sex crimes in 2021. Now he will serve a second life sentence for additional crimes uncovered.
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — More than two decades later, a Marion County man whom a state attorney referred to as a “serial child rapist pedophile” has been found guilty of child sex crimes for the second time.
George Lightkep had already been given a life sentence for child sex crimes and has now been found guilty of three more counts of sexual battery on a child under 12 years of age.
The State Attorney’s Office says the crimes occurred between 2000 and 2002.
Lightkep was first convicted in 2021, when a St. Johns County jury took about 12 minutes to find him guilty, the Florida Times-Union reported. In that case, he was found guilty of sexually abusing and molesting a girl over a 16-year span, beginning when she was 5 or 6 years old.
Authorities said Lightkep, who once lived in St. Johns County, began abusing the girl in 1990 and continued until 2006. They said “controlled phone calls” and interviews with the girl and a Marion County victim led to his arrest and conviction.
After additional crimes were uncovered, Lightkep has been handed another life sentence following a trial in Florida’s 7th Judicial Circuit. This sentence will be served consecutively to the one he is already serving from his 2021 conviction.
“The defendant is a serial child rapist pedophile,” State Attorney R.J. Larizza said about the case. “He preyed upon young girls between the ages of 6 and 9 years old. God bless and keep our victims who came forward and provided detailed testimony of the sexual abuse.”