Bluffton man pleads guilty to sexually abusing young girls for years, Solicitor’s Office says
A 73-year-old Bluffton man was sentenced to 35 years in prison Wednesday on charges of sexually assaulting two girls at his home between 2006 and 2011, according to a 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office news release.
Joseph Stephen Hunter pleaded guilty to three counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor and one count of first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, the release said.
The assaults began when the girls were 6 and 7 years old until their families moved away from the area, the release said. Years later, the girls told a therapist about the sexual abuse, who then contacted law enforcement, the release said.
Electronic devices seized from Hunter’s home in 2016 had child pornography and other evidence of the girls’ sexual abuse on them, the release said.
“This man groomed these young girls then preyed on them like a true predator,” Hunter Swanson, who prosecuted the case, said in the release.
