KSDK has a video report on these new charges HERE.
Michael Devlin was charged with 71 new charges today including kidnapping and sexual assault on a minor.
The three hundred pound Devlin was charged with sexual assault on the young boys.
Local television KSDK reported:
Michael Devlin, already charged with kidnappings in two other counties, is now facing 71 charges in St. Louis County.
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch announced the charges Monday afternoon. They include two kidnapping charges (one for each abducted child) and 69 sexual assault charges
The charges carry the possibility of life in prison.
McCulloch said the kidnapping charges in St. Louis County are different from the kidnapping charges in the other two counties.
In those counties, the kidnapping charges are related to the taking of the two children; in St. Louis County, the charges are for unlawfully restraining them.
Devlin, a 41-year-old pizzeria manager, was arrested after the two missing children were found in his Kirkwood apartment.
Prosecutors in the three counties are working together to determine which charges Devlin might be tried on first, though no arraignment date has been set in St. Louis County.
Local St. Louis KMOV has more on the nature of the charges:
In the case of 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck, the abuse lasted four years, according to the charges. For 13-year-old Ben Owbny, the abuse began the day he was abducted last month and lasted until he was rescued four days later.
The charges represented the first time authorities have openly accused Michael Devlin of molesting the children.
…Seventeen of the charges allege that Devlin kidnapped Ben on Jan. 8 and forced the boy to have “deviate sexual intercourse” with Devlin four times that day and four times each day for the next three days. There are no charges for the day of Jan. 12, when the boys were found.
The remaining 54 charges claim that after kidnapping Shawn in October 2002, Devlin kept the boy isolated in Devlin’s apartment for the first month.
The boy was forced to have intercourse with Devlin throughout that month and at least once a month until Shawn and Ben were found in January, prosecutors said.
Previously:
St. Louis Officials Find Ben Ownby & Shawn Hornbeck Alive!
Missouri Miracle- Shawn Hornbeck Talks About His Kidnapping
