A West Virginia man convicted of impregnating an 11-year-old girl who was then forced to get an abortion has been sentenced to just five years probation as part of a plea deal.
Michael Joe Adkins has avoided jail time and instead was given probation and 50 years of supervision when he was sentenced in Cabell County on November 16.
Adkins will also have to register as a sex offender and undergo therapy.
He was accused of raping the girl at his home in Ona between October 2010 and February 2011.
Michael Joe Adkins has avoided jail time and instead was given probation and 50 years of supervision for impregnating an 11-year-old girl at his West Virginia home in 2011
The girl was taken for an abortion in March.
Adkins and his wife Amanda Adkins were charged with a range of sexual assault offences.
He entered a plea agreement two years ago between the prosecution and defense that allowed a conviction without him having to admit guilt or explain his role in the crime, the Herald-Dispatch reports.
Adkins and his wife Amanda Adkins (above) were charged with a range of sexual assault offences. Amanda pleaded guilty to child neglect in 2015
He was sentenced by Cabell County Judge Paul Farrell after the initial judge, Alfred E. Ferguson, rejected an earlier plea deal without prison.
A family member told Judge Farrell that the victim, who is now 18, still lives in fear.
The victim can’t even go to the bathroom without thinking Adkins is lurking nearby, according to the family member.
Defense attorney Connor Robertson said his client had been under the court’s supervision since 2011 and that his only issues were minor speeding tickets.
He tried to argue that the supervised period would only need to be a few years but Judge Farrell insisted on the maximum.
‘I’m just going to be blunt: I hope you screw up during those 50 years so I can send you to prison,’ the judge told Adkins during sentencing.
‘If you violate any of the terms and conditions in the next 50 years, then the court can send you to prison – and I’m hoping that’s the case, because you should go to prison for what you did.’
Adkins’ now estranged wife, who pleaded guilty to child neglect in 2015, was sentenced to 18 months of probation and 10 years of supervised release.