CAMDEN COUNTY, Ga. — A 32-year-old Camden County man was found guilty of rape, child molestation and incest involving his 12-year-old stepdaughter after a jury deliberated for just five minutes Tuesday.

The man will not be named in this story, to avoid publicly identifying his stepdaughter. 

The man was sentenced immediately after the verdict. He was given life in prison for rape, twenty years in prison for child molestation and fifty years for incest. All sentences will run concurrently.

Evidence at the trial showed that he had raped his stepdaughter at their home in St. Marys for at least a year beginning in August 2020. The child had told her mother that previous to them moving to Georgia, her stepfather had sexually assaulted her, but the mother did not intervene.

The mother was sentenced on felony charges for her involvement in the abuse.

The victim, who is now 16, thanked St. Marys Police Detective Kimberly Reale on the witness stand. She said Reale, who was the first to respond to the scene when the assaults were reported, was responsible for stopping the abuse.

Keith Higgins, District Attorney for the Brunswick Judicial Court, said the victim is now living in a loving home. 

“The victim in this case continues to reside in Camden County, but does so now under the love and care of her adopted parents,” he wrote in a release.