Bond has been set at 2.5 million dollars for a Durham, North Carolina school resource officer accused of kidnapping a child and having sexual relations with her. Deputy Christopher Kelly, 40, was charged with, Statutory Sex Offense with a Child, First Degree Sexual Exploitation of a Minor, Second Degree Sexual Exploitation of a Minor, Indecent Liberties with a Child, Sex Acts with a Student, and Second Degree Kidnapping. He is currently being held for “safe keeping” in prison.
Kelly, who was fired at the end of April as a result of the charges, was the school resource officer at Northern High School in Durham. “I think like anyone else he’s nervous, he’s scared and he’s wanting to have his day in court,” said Daniel Meier attorney for the former officer who was allegedly supposed to have been protecting the students from someone like himself.
The teenage victim’s father said Kelly approached him, and much like an Uncle/niece type of relationship wanted to mentor his daughter. “It seemed appropriate at the time,” the father said discussing the relationship with reporters from Eyewitness News 11.
As TFTP has reported on numerous occasions, pedophiles will try to befriend the family of their targeted victim in an attempt to gain their trust, only to abuse their children later. According to court documents, the sexual relationship started in July of 2016 and lasted until April of 2017.
Kelly, who’s married and has three children of his own, had been with the Durham Sheriff’s Office for four years, and was considered reliable enough, apparently, to work with high schoolers at both Hillside and Northern. But placing Kelly into the schools has now turned into a scandalous mistake if these allegations against him hold up in court.
“I really have nothing to say to him (Kelly),” said the father as he seemingly choked back the tears and anguish.
Kelly will return to court on July 19th for his next appearance. However, if the charges against him are true and he’s found guilty, the damage to the 15-year-old’s life has already been done. She now has to live the rest of her life knowing someone, a police officer no less, robbed her of her innocence.
According to the Durham Herald-Sun;
Detectives discovered explicit photos on Kelly’s cellphone of a video “chat session” with a minor in which the girl is completely naked. An arrest warrant states Kelly did “induce and encourage a minor” to engage in sexual activity and take part in video chat sessions “in which the juvenile would perform sexual acts and/or the defendant would take part in sexual acts.”
Sheriff Mike Andrews released the following statement which reads in part;
When one of our own is accused of abusing the trust we work hard to earn, it is both disheartening and devastating to all involved. Our thoughts are with the family at the center of this ongoing investigation. The Sheriff’s Office will continue to work with the Durham County District Attorney’s Office, and we will respect the judicial system in the next phase of this process.
Kelly’s sick relationship with the victim goes back to the 2014-15 school year when he was a school resource officer at Carrington Middle School. It seems his infatuation with the victim led him to follow her to Northern High School where he served as an off-duty school resource officer even though he was permanently assigned to Hillside High.
Because this police officer served in three different schools, we are asking parents of children at those three schools to speak with their children about Kelly. If there are other victims out there, now’s the time to come forward. If your daughter or son was a student at Carrington Middle, Hillside High, or Northern High School, take a few moments and have that hard talk with your child about pedophiles. As statistics show it is likely that there is more than one victim.
Source: TFTP
I am sure they did not do a though background check on him either