- NEWS RELEASE -

Date: March 13, 2006

Subject: Sex offender gets 15 year sentence

A man who sexually molested a six-year old girl was sentenced to fifteen years in prison March 13 in Platte County Circuit Court. Kenneth J. Pratt, 44, of Riverside, Missouri, pled guilty of molesting the girl in his Platte County residence on the morning his trial was scheduled to begin.

Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd said, “This defendant committed a horrible act—sexually victimizing a young child. Thankfully these acts did not include raping this young girl, but when a 44-year old man touches a six-year old inappropriately a prison term is justified.”

According to Zahnd, the defendant would occasionally take care of the six-year old girl in his apartment in Riverside, Missouri. On June 30, 2005, the girl and her mother went to visit the defendant.

The girl, believing she was going to spend the night at the defendant’s home, began to cry. The girl then disclosed to her mother that she didn’t want to stay because the defendant had been sexually abusing her.

The girl was interviewed by the Child Protection Center in Kansas City. She disclosed that Pratt had sexually abused her between April and July 2005.

Zahnd said, “These types of cases are extremely difficult to prosecute because often it is the word of a child against the word of the perpetrator. However, in this case, the details this young girl was able to articulate were so disturbingly realistic that there was no doubt that the sexual abuse did in fact occur.”

Because the girl reported only inappropriate sexual touching, Pratt was charged with child molestation.

This case was investigated by the Riverside Department of Public Safety and prosecuted by Assistant Prosecuting Attorneys Robin Threlkeld and Myles Perry.