Louisa man gets five years for 1980s sexual abuse
Justice delayed was not justice denied yesterday for a Louisa County man accused of sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl nearly 30 years ago.
Richard Clinton Moore, who initially escaped punishment for his crimes even after admitting guilt, will now spend the next five years behind bars.
After a 45-minute hearing yesterday in Louisa Circuit Court, Judge Timothy K. Sanner sentenced the 58-year-old Moore to a total of 13 years in prison with eight years suspended.
"The judge sentenced him to more than five times more than the [state sentencing] guidelines," said Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Rusty McGuire. The guidelines called for an active term of six months to one year, McGuire said.
Moore pleaded guilty in July to charges of sodomy and taking indecent liberties with a child. The crimes occurred in 1980 and 1981, when the girl was about 10, McGuire said.
Moore originally had been accused of sexually abusing the girl in 1987 but no charges were placed, even though the allegation was determined to be founded by social-services authorities in Louisa and forwarded to county law-enforcement officials, authorities said.
Moore had admitted in 1987 to abusing the girl and said he could not control his urges when around children, prosecutors said at his July 23 trial.
Authorities began a new investigation last year after the victim, now 39, wrote a letter to the Virginia Commonwealth's Attorney Services Council seeking justice. Louisa Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Garrett, who took office in January 2008, asked the Louisa Sheriff's Office to investigate.
Moore was arrested Feb. 25. Yesterday, he apologized to the victim's family and the court for his actions.
"We are pleased that justice was served today, even though it was delayed by decades," Garrett said yesterday.
Contact Mark Bowes at (804) 649-6450 or
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Reader Reactions
Certainly if the victim was male there would be more outrage, but it was just a little girl.I work with troubled youth and the numbers of them that have been sexually molested is astounding. I am troubled that children are being raised in families that deny or minimize the reports of a daughter or sister being traumitized sexually by a family member,friend, boyfriend, neighbor.It is generational, rampant and under reported. It’s sickening and society stands by and does nothing because the victim is female. Had he sodomized a male child, he would be serving a much greater sentence because.. “its a crime against nature”.but the victim was female and did not rise to that next level of crime against nature.
I think he should get life. He destroyed a child,robbed her of an innocent childhood, what of her? When will begin to think of females in this society as worthy and not as chattel. ??
Child abuse is always a heinous crime, of course, but two things particularly bother me about this case.
First, that Moore originally had been accused of sexually abusing the girl in 1987, the allegation was determined to be founded by social-services, and that, according to prosecutors, he admitted in 1987 to abusing the girl. If all of these things are true, why wasn’t he charged and tried at that time?
Secondly, and this bothers me even more,
that the state sentencing guidelines for sexually abusing a minor only calls for an active term of six months to one year!
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