Former SC deputy charged with 18 counts of committing sex acts on minors, SLED says
A former Aiken County deputy is charged with multiple counts of rape against minors, according to state police.
Police charged Robert Lewis Beard, 40, with 18 counts of molesting children.
Beard worked with the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office from 2014 to 2016 as a jailer at the detention center before being fired after an arrest, The Aiken Standard reported.
The rapes and sexual acts happened from 2003 to 2016, according to arrest warrants. The warrants are unclear exactly how many victims there were but there was more than one victim between 3 and 15 years old. The victims came forward with the accusations, according to the warrants.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division investigated Beard at the request of the sheriffs’ offices of Aiken and Edgefield counties.
SLED charged Beard with 15 counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor and three counts of committing a lewd act on a minor
In 2017, Beard pleaded guilty to aggravated child molestation and incest in Georgia and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, records show. The latest charges are connected to the cases that sent Beard to prison, SLED said.
If convicted on SLED’s charges, Beard will spend the rest of his life in prison.
This story was originally published March 19, 2020 at 3:42 PM.