Man Given Suspended Sentence For Raping Pawnee County Girl

Thomas Higgins, 21, was given a 10-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to raping a girl he'd been communicating with since she was 13.

Wednesday, February 26th 2014, 2:43 pm

By: News On 6


A man who pleaded guilty to raping a 14-year-old girl has been given a 10-year suspended sentence, court records show.

Thomas Stewart Madewell Higgins, 21, pleaded guilty last fall to forcible sodomy, indecent exposure, two counts of lewd proposal to a minor, two counts of sodomy to a victim under 16 and two counts of rape by instrumentation.

Higgins has been sentenced to 10 years for each count, which will be served concurrently. However, all will be suspended except for time already served in the Pawnee County Jail, records show. Higgins spent about nine months behind bars -- in lieu of a $250,000 bond -- as he awaited trial.

He also is to register as a sex offender, enter sex offender treatment, never to be alone with anyone under the age of 16 and have no contact with the victim.

Higgins' sentencing was continued six times since Nov. 22 before a judge entered his ruling on Friday.

06/05/2013 Related Story: Sand Springs Man Charged With Child Porn, Rape Of 14-year-old Girl

Court documents show the girl's mother alerted police in April 2013 after she found questionable text messages on her daughter's cell phone.

According to an affidavit, Cleveland Police Chief Clint Stout interviewed the victim, who said she sneaked out of her house on April 20 and April 21 to meet Higgins in her yard for sexual activity.

In a follow-up forensics interview, the girl reportedly told an investigator from the Child Abuse Network that she and Higgins, who then lived in Sand Springs, began communicating through Facebook when she was 13.

The affidavit says the meetings in Cleveland included many explicit acts, but stopped short of intercourse.

Stout said Higgins voluntarily gave up his personal email and Facebook passwords to police. Nine pornographic photos of the 14-year-old were found in his email account, documents show.

Nine counts of procuring child pornography were dismissed by the state the same day Higgins entered his plea.

Court documents show Higgins' current address is in Terlton.

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