Man, woman arrested in Aiken, charged with sexually assaulting horse
A man and woman in Aiken have been arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a horse two times.
Abigail Louise Ronco, 30, and Damian Alexander Connor, 31, were taken into custody Friday by the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office, according to online court records.
According to arrest warrants, deputies say that Ronco and Conner committed the “abominable crime of buggery” and had intercourse with the horse in May and June 2019. The two counts for each individual are based on information gathered from forensic examination of electronic devices and interviews with both Ronco and Connor.
Connor was previously arrested on May 19 on 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, second degree, according to court records. The Aiken Standard reported that deputies found evidence for the buggery charges after they seized electronic devices from Connor after he was charged with downloading and viewing child pornography.
In September 2019, Ronco filed a police report with the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office after a horse she owned was sexually assaulted at the same address listed in Friday’s arrest warrants. Martijn Stuurman, partners with Ronco in running Spearhead Equines, told the Augusta Chronicle that a veterinarian found evidence that the horse was abused after Ronco said she found the animal with a rope tied around the right front leg and right back leg.
That case is still open, according to the Aiken Standard.
