In February of 2012, Missouri foster father, Mark O’Brien, was arrested and charged with sodomy and child abuse. Years after being in his foster care, one of the boys told his parents about the abuse. The Child Advocacy Center interviewed the boy and investigators located and arrested O’Brien, seizing his laptop computer which had child pornography on it.
At some point throughout the trial a third child came forward with similar accusations. Two of the victims were under the age of 12 and the third was 14 years old when the abuse occurred. In August of 2014, O’Brien was found guilty of six counts of statutory sodomy and one count of child abuse. Following the guilty verdict he was taken into custody.
During the sentencing hearing last week, all three accusers spoke out — one of them sharing how he was forced to sleep outside without any protection after the abuse. At the end of the hearing O’Brien was sentenced to 55 years in prison with no chance of probation.
