Sex offender accused of raping teen in Moselle | Free News

Suspect on registry for sexual assault conviction when he was 16

A Richton man who was convicted of a sex crime as a teenager is being accused of raping a teen girl in south Jones County last spring.

Benjamin Ryan Smith, 22, was charged with sexual battery and rape and booked into the Jones County Adult Detention Center late Tuesday afternoon. He made his initial appearance in Jones County Justice Court on Wednesday, and Judge Grant Hedgepeth set his bond at $250,000.

The charges stem from an incident that occurred at Smith’s home on Sanford Road in Moselle in May, according to the report. Deputies from the Jones County Sheriff’s Department were dispatched to Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg to take the report after the girl’s mother took her there. Medical personnel did a rape kit on the teen, which was placed into evidence at the JCSD.

It’s not clear why so many months passed before Smith was arrested. He is a registered sex offender, convicted of sexual battery in Forrest County in August 2016, when he was 16. Sex offenders are required to make their whereabouts known to local law enforcement at all times, and Smith had his mugshot updated on Dec. 4, according to the registry, which shows him with an address on Highway 29 in Richton.

Smith is related to the mother of his most recent accuser, and the teen was staying there with him and his wife when he went in the room and began assaulting her while she was asleep, sources with knowledge of the case said. The girl told her mother, who took her to the hospital and told deputies that Smith had sexually assaulted the teen.

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