Kenneth G. Hinson Arrested Again on Rape Charges in South Carolina
Kenneth G. Hinson, a previously convicted rapist, was arrested today on charges of 
what else? Rape. He was arrested on charges of assaulting two 17 year old girls. Hinson had been previously convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl in 1991. Once again another case of giving the benefit of the doubt to the criminal and endangering the publics safety.
Kenneth G. Hinson, 47, fled on foot after the girls escaped and called police. Although he was carrying a handgun, Hinson was arrested without incident after a neighbor spotted him, said Deputy U.S. Marshal Tim Stec.
The two 17-year-old girls were taken from their nearby home late Monday and assaulted in a room under a shed on Hinson’s property, police said. The girls were left bound inside the room but managed to wriggle free and walk to safety. (AP)
Hinson had created an elaborate underground room behind his home hidden by a shed where he committed the rapes and imprisoned the teens. Hinson abducted both girls separately while they slept.
Authorities say that late Monday, Hinson, 47, took the two 17-year-old girls one at a time from a nearby mobile home while they were sleeping. He bound the first girl’s mouth with tape and took her to a shed on his property, where a trap door led to an underground room not much larger than a closet with a 4-foot ceiling, Darlington County Chief Deputy Tom Gainey said.
Hinson sexually assaulted the girl, then left her in the underground room
bound with duct tape while he went back to the mobile home for the other girl. She was also sexually assaulted, Gainey said.
After Hinson left, the teens managed to wriggle free, open the trap door and kick down the door to the shed. They walked through some woods and flagged down a passing motorist, Gainey said.
Like in so many cases we see today, Kenneth G. Hinson was arrested and sent to prison for nine years in 1991 for the rape of a 12 year old girl. The problem being that Hinson was sentenced to 20 years for the crime, yet in 2000 Circuit Judge Edward Cottingham let this predator out of prison and said, “authorities failed to show the man was capable of committing a sexual offense in the future”. Judge Cottingham, what do you think now? Review Committees at the time had requested that Hinson remain in prison and was a risk to society. Yet Circuit Judge Edward Cottingham in his infinite wisdom allowed this animal back on the streets to prey on innocent girls. This is just the latest in a long line of judges that need to be shown the door as they do not have the publics safety or interest at heart.
In 1991, Hinson was convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl. He was released from prison in 2000 after serving nine years of a 20-year sentence, a decision state Attorney General Henry McMaster blasted Friday.
“This man was sentenced to 20 years. Had that 20 years meant 20 years, he’d still be in jail now, and this wouldn’t have happened,” McMaster told Fox News.
McMaster also chided a judge’s decision to not place Hinson in a program for sexually violent predators.
Just before Hinson’s release, a review committee recommended that he be committed indefinitely to a Department of Mental Health facility for treatment, but Circuit Judge Edward Cottingham rejected the recommendation, saying prosecutors failed to show Hinson would likely offend again.
“I can’t control what comes before me as a judge,” Cottingham said Friday. “And I deal with what’s before me and make a ruling to the best of my judgment.”
Cottingham said he did not remember Hinson’s specific case but that state law requires prosecutors to show probable cause that the person will commit another sexual assault.
When is enough, enough? When is the judiciary going to actually start making the primary concern the publics safety first? One can only imagine the rapes that Hinson may have done between 2000 and today that he was never charged with, or worse. Just recently we were presented with Judge Edward Cashman in Vermont who gave a sexual predator, Mark Hulett, 6 months until pressure was brought to bear.
“The one message I want to get through is that anger doesn’t solve anything. It just corrodes your soul,” said Judge Edward Cashman speaking to a packed Burlington courtroom.
Then there was the Ohio judge, Judge John Connor, that gave a convicted sexual predator who raped two boys probation. A judge that also seems to have his own issues and many wonder how continues to be a judge.
See more of Judge John Conner’s past and questionable decisions.
Now this brilliant decision by Circuit Judge Edward Cottingham to let this convicted rapist out early was he did not this he would rape again. What are these people thinking, especially when he was advised by two panels not to let this criminal out of jail. These judges should be charged with crimes for their pathetic, ridiculous and harmful decisions that they make that expose predators on society.
EARTH TO JUDGES … THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A ONE TIME RAPIST!!!
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Pingback by Kenneth G. Hinson Arrested: Another Repeat Rape Offender, What a Shock » Scared Monkeys | March 17, 2006
friggin perv. your kind of pepple just make the world even scarrier for teenage girls like me. i hate you.
Comment by courtney | March 20, 2006
I was looking online to see if Judge Edward Cottingham was still practicing law and, unfortunately, he is. I also came across an article in which he sentenced a black man to 7 years in prison with 3 years of probation after he gets out for (drumroll please) STEALING TIMBER!
How can you sentence someone to 7+ years for stealing trees, but let a perv maniac like Hinson out after only 9 years. As a safeguard he could have at least agreed to let Hinson go into a mental facility for observation before being released to the public.
Cottingham has daughters. How would he have felt if it were one of them that had been abused by a stranger? I’ll bet he’d have a different attitude.
The police, lawyers, and victims in the case of the 12-year girl being raped by Hinson, did what they were supposed to and got him locked up. Cottingham made a mockery of the sentence by releasing him after 9 years instead of the full 18 years.
Well, guess what? Judge Edward Cottingam is listed on the Charleston Bar Association website – a public site – as is his email address.
If you want to tell him what you think, here’s his email address: ecottinghamlaw@bellsouth.net
Here’s the URL for the Charleston Bar website he’s listed on too: http://www.charlestonbar.org/CM/LawyersDirectory/LawyersDirectory32.asp
Comment by Unbelievable! | March 22, 2006
[...] South Carolina has an answer to that illness that will cure it permanently. In a backlash to the recent “Dungeon rapes“ by sex offender Kenneth Glenn Hinson, the SC attorney general backs a proposal that will execute twice convicted child molesters. Some S.C. legislators want to execute twice-convicted child molesters, and experts say such a law could be upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. [...]
Pingback by Finally a Stand against Child Molesters; South Carolina Bill, Execute 2-time Molesters » Scared Monkeys Missing Persons Site | March 28, 2006
To our lawmakers, RE: convicted child molesters. The following rule (law) is essential.
If you endanger, abuse, neglect, hurt a child: ONE STRIKE, YOU’RE OUT. PERIOD.
It is a no-brainer, ladies and gentlemen.
Comment by Eva | September 18, 2006
Theres no freaking justice system, its fake and people want to play God, just like Mr Bush, the Government and most of the medical field that keep us sick to make money, this world has gone to hell. John Wayne Gacy killed all those people because he was led out of jail early too, He was suppose to do 10 years for attempted molestation (luckily the little boy was slicker than that fool) but they let Gacy out in less than one year because “he was not a threat to society” that first year Gacy was out was when he started his sick, perverted killing spree. Gacy was not the first or last to be let out of prison or jail to only get out and commit bigger crimes. I guess the only thing we got going is the right to bare arms!! The hell with justice!!! no thank you Mr Judge Ill make my own justice, watch out perverts and all criminals dont come to my house because you wont come out alive!!
Comment by Lisa | September 18, 2006
It is just too much to even comprehend. This judge is so out of touch with reality. Why anybody could imagine a man who once raped a 12 yr old could be a functioning part of society is beyond me. It does not take a law degree to use common sense.
I get a sense since the judge can’t recall a case of a 12 year old getting raped, he probably is not terribly moved by it. What’s one more rape, right? As long as it’s not his family members….
Sometimes elders can function and remain active and use good judgment. Other times, you get a nightmare that ruins lives. I hope this guy’s career as a judge is over. He is not fit to be involved in any active legal duty.
Shame on him. I hope he can comprehend 1/100th of the pain that these victims felt. But for some reason I doubt that he is capable of this.
Comment by Nina | April 16, 2007
you are sick freak what is the matter with you rapist the do you not understand what the word no means you rapist take from people without the care of the emotional scare you leave on people i think that all rapist she die from leathal injection you rape you should die
Comment by vicki miller | April 18, 2007