Ashford man pleads guilty to rape, sodomy of teenage girl

An Ashford man received a 10-year prison sentence Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to five sexual assault charges involving a 13-year-old Georgia girl.

Circuit Court Judge Butch Binford gave William Chad Dean, 24, the prison term after he pleaded guilty to three felony counts of second-degree rape, two felony counts of second-degree sodomy and felony enticing a child to enter a vehicle, room or place for sex. Binford sentenced Dean to serve 10 years in prison for each of the six charges, which were to be served concurrently with each other.

“You’ll have to register as a sex offender, and you will be extremely limited as to where you can live and work,” Binford said.

Houston County Sheriff’s detectives arrested Dean in April 2009 and charged him with the sex crimes.

Attorney Shaun McGhee asked for his client’s sentence to be served on top of a 10-year sentence for similar charges in Georgia.

After Dean’s arrest, Houston County Sheriff’s Office officials said the teenage victim had been a reported missing runaway from Donalsonville, Ga., in Seminole County. Deputies found the girl at a residence on Battle Road near Ashford. Sheriff’s officials said Dean began a relationship with the teenage girl after he had met her on the Internet.

“This is the first time in a courtroom,” said the father of the teenage victim. “I’m just trying to get it all behind me.”