DA: Man pleads guilty to child rape at North Highlands church, Ghana camp
A serial child rapist who attacked the young victims in his care at a North Highlands church and left other victims around the world including at a Ghanaian refugee camp will spend the rest of his life in state prison.
Sacramento County prosecutors said Richmond Butler, 52, pleaded to three counts of lewd acts upon a child, forcible lewd act upon a child, forcible rape and sodomy of a person younger than 16 years old at the Aug. 13 hearing in Sacramento Superior Court, according to Sacramento County District Attorney’s officials. He also admitted a prior strike conviction for child molestation.
Butler will be sentenced to a 90-year term in state prison Sept. 19 before Sacramento Superior Court Judge Satnam Rattu.
Butler at the hearing also admitted to allegations he abused multiple victims; that he had substantial sexual conduct with a child under 14 years of age; that his victims were particulalry vulnerable and that he took advantage of a position of trust.
Butler first met the church victims’ parents through the Victory Life Bible Church in North Highlands where he cared for their children while they were at work. Prosecutors said his numerous victims ranged in age from 5 to 14, part of a catalog of offenses against children listed in the plea.
Butler also forcibly raped a 17-year-old victim within a year of pleading to a previous charge of committing a lewd act upon a child. D.A. investigators tracked yet more crimes abroad, including the abuses in Africa, officials said.
“During the investigation, other victims were found throughout the world. This included sexual assaults he committed against two minors while he was at a refugee camp in Ghana,” the D.A.’s Office said in a statement.
Under the terms of his plea, Butler must serve 25 years of his 90-year term before he is eligible for parole. That works out to approximately 20 years with in-custody credits, the D.A.’s Office said.
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