Richard Keenan: Former Ohio Mayor, Charged With Raping A 4-Year-Old Girl, Says His Victim ‘Initiated Sex And Was A Willing Participant’

Richard Keenan, a 65-year-old former Ohio mayor who has been charged with several counts of raping a 4-year-old girl, blamed the child for “initiating” sex with him and called her a “willing participant” in his deplorable actions, according to court documents accessed by the Washington Post.

Keenan, who briefly served as the mayor of the small city of Hubbard in Ohio, was indicted last month on eight counts of gross sexual imposition, eight counts of rape, and four counts of attempted rape. He reportedly confessed his crimes to a pastor and later his wife, who confronted him after the girl talked about the alleged abuse.

“I did it,” Keenan reportedly told his wife, according to documents filed by Trumbull County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Gabriel Wildman.

He also talked about raping the child to other family members, reports the Post, and later told a social worker in a psychiatric ward that the young girl he abused had “initiated the sex and was a willing participant.” It is not yet known how he knew his victim, although he confessed to raping her for a period of two years, beginning in 2013.

According to his detailed confession to a pastor, whose identity has not been revealed, he first abused the young girl when she walked in on him in the bathroom almost three years ago. Keenan claims that the child “asked him if she could touch his pee-pee,” after which he “kissed, fondled and performed oral sex on the girl, and let her kiss his genitals,” reports the New York Daily News.

Ex-Ohio mayor accused of raping 4 y/o girl allegedly said she was "willing participant" https://t.co/JmpNGw8jSi pic.twitter.com/e0U4DWXkJu

— KTLA (@KTLA) September 14, 2016

Keenan, who served as the mayor of Hubbard for a year between 2010 and 2011, described himself as a “man of faith” at the time. He had told the Vindicator that he was a “dedicated Christian” who did not only believe in preaching the gospels, but living them.

“I’m a Christian,” he had claimed not long after being sworn in as the mayor of Hubbard.

“Dedicating my life to Jesus has changed my life… Don’t preach it, but live it.”

During the interview, Keenan had also said that he cared about the people of Hubbard.

“I care about his town,” he had said. “I’m pulled to hear the heart of the people.”

After reportedly confessing his crime to his wife, Keenan was admitted to the Trumbull Memorial Hospital’s psychiatric ward in Warren, Ohio, where he reportedly told people during a group discussion about the extent of his crime while also telling them that he had been doing so for a period of two years.

He was then released from the hospital before being re-admitted to the River Bend Treatment Center, where he told a social worker that the child he raped for two years had “willingly participated” in his deplorable actions, while also adding that the crimes he committed haunted him and was making him feel suicidal.

Keenan later told his brother- and sister-in-law during a conversation that he had “gone way over the line” in his dealings with the victim, the court documents show.

The former Ohio mayor was arrested last month. Online records show that he was released on the same day on a bond of $75,000. He pleaded not guilty to the crime, and his trial is scheduled to begin next year in April. If convicted of raping the child, Richard Keenan could be sentenced to a life in prison.

Under the Ohio law, the pastor that the 65-year-old reportedly confessed to is not bound to appear before the court during the trial, but his wife, Diana, can be a competent witness if she does decide to testify against him in court.

[Featured Image via Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office]