Suffolk News-Herald

Defense Attorney John Babineau and Special Prosecutor Lori Galbraith were in Suffolk Circuit Court Thursday morning to set a date for trial in the case of Kenneth Joseph Duncan, a man charged with sexually abusing of an 8-year-old boy.

Duncan was not present for the hearing, but the judge set Aug. 24 as the day when he will be tried on 16 indictments including possession of child pornography, aggravated sexual battery and forcible sodomy.

Duncan is alleged to have committed the crimes in 2001, when he was 17 years old.

He was a substitute teacher prior to being indicted in June 2003 for the crimes against the victim, a resident of the Archer’s Mill Road area.

Because Duncan was a juvenile at the time of the alleged incidents, he was first brought to Suffolk’s Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court to determine if he would face trial as an adult.

Judge William R. Moore Jr. found evidence offered by Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Marie T. Walls sufficient to send the charges to the grand jury. Moore also upheld the Commonwealth’s request to have the trial transferred to Suffolk Circuit Court for Duncan to be tried as an adult.

The Commonwealth Attorney’s office charges that from Jan. 1, 2000 to Aug. 31, 2001, Duncan forcibly sodomized the child four times. He is also charged with six counts of aggravated sexual battery, and four counts of child pornography.

The sexual battery charges carry a sentence of one to 20 years in prison, and up to a $100,000 fine. Each of the sodomy charges carries five years to life.

He has been held without bond in Western Tidewater Regional Jail since his arrest in March 2003.