Ohio Man Hired Hitman To Kill Child After Raping Her

An Ohio man faces life imprisonment without the chance of parole after he reportedly hired a hitman to kill a young child, but that isn’t the only horrific part of this story. The Washington Times reports that 41-year-old John. P. Friend III has entered a guilty plea in the brutal rape and attempted conspiracy to have a little girl murdered.

The incident reportedly took place at least a year ago, which led to an indictment in October of 2014. However, while the Ohio man was in jail on child sex charges — stemming from the sexual assault of a child under 10 years of age — he contacted a hitman to arrange the death of his victim. He wanted the child murdered to prevent her from testifying against him in court. WHIO News reports that he was indicted on at least one charge of conspiracy to commit murder back in March of this year.

John P. Friend, III entered a guilty plea on charges of raping a child under 10, gross sexual imposition of a child under 13, and conspiracy to commit murder in the solicitation of a hitman. He was also convicted of trying to hire the same hitman to kill the father of his young victim.

As horrendous as it seems, this is not the first time someone has tried to hire someone to kill a child. The Washington Post reported earlier this year that a former Democratic Party chairman had been charged with molesting two young girls. However, his crimes took an even worse turn when he allegedly attempted to hire a hitman to kill both of them so they couldn’t testify against him during his trial. Also this year, an Australian man was charged with trying to hire someone to kill a 15-year-old girl. ABC News reports that the Sydney man solicited the girl’s murder — which was unsuccessful — after an abuse investigation began against him. Another Ohio man was convicted in the 1990s for attempting to hire a hitman to murder his unborn child via the contracted murder of a pregnant woman. In a similar case, a Missouri woman was charged this year with trying to arrange the murder of her husband’s pregnant mistress — which would have resulted in the deaths of both the woman and her unborn child. A police officer in Austin, Texas, has also been accused of trying to hire a hitman to kill a pregnant woman.

Photo: Dayton Police mugshot