A North Augusta man was arrested Thursday afternoon by State Law Enforcement Division investigators on charges of criminal sexual conduct with a 3-year-old girl.
Heath Russell Wetherington, 28, of the 200 block of Altamaha Drive, is accused of committing sexual battery with the girl at a North Augusta home between Oct. 3 and Dec. 16 . The girl was injured by the sexual battery, according to SLED spokeswoman Jennifer Timmons.
North Augusta Public Safety requested SLED investigate after the first report was filed in the case, Timmons said.
Wetherington is the nephew of former North Augusta Public Safety Chief T. Lee Wetherington. He was booked at the Aiken County Detention Center.
Attention inmates at Aiken County Detention Center. Sharpen your shanks, bleed him slow, make him suffer.
Can someone explain why it took almost a year to investigate this and charge him? It's not like the victim was old enough to real reluctant to come forward with the accusation.
I'm hoping someone damages his genital area too! Special place in Hell for you there buddy!
This beast will never change, never improve and never be fit to be free in any society. I wonder how long before he's back on the street.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not at all taking his side. It's just that the time elapsed had not been explained in this report.
I'm pretty sensitive to time elapsed since as a member of a jury, and according to the law as explained to us, we had to let a known drug dealer go. Quite naturally I'm going to question why it took so long to make the case.
"North Augusta Public Safety requested SLED investigate the case" Because NAPD is busy writing traffic tickets!
He isn't part of former NAPS Chief Wetherington's family, is he? It sounds to me like maybe he is!
KSL, I think that may be a huge factor in this case- if he's related. It would certainly explain why SLED is involved.
AC, can you find this out for us?
And KSL, 3 year olds don't have a big vocabulary. Maybe it took a while for the child to tell their parent.
I would understand that Corgi if it had been on-going up until now.
As for NAPD, they are low on my list for respect of law enforcement. N. Augusta has annexed I-20 all the way to the Graniteville exit (Exit 11) and are writing speeding tickets. Just don't ask them to work an accident along that stretch.
I appreciate good advice. When we came looking for a place to live when my husband took his first job out of college, we were advised to avoid N. Augusta.
Now granted, N. Augusta is much improved in some ways since then. But we absolutely took the right advice for us and our family.
Are you sure about the annexation of I-20 to Graniteville? Sounds a little far-fetched.
It takes an extremely sick and perverted excuse of a person to do anything to harm a child.... He may not have many problems in ACDC, but there is a General Population yard in Ridgeville waiting for him. I predict that he will not at all like what happens to him there..
Just to play Devil's Advocate here: Where are all the Christians who always comment, "We shouldn't judge" "God is all forgiving" Etc...Where are the obese people claiming that, "It's a disease?" Doesn't this man quailify as mentally ill? We all agree that a normal person doesn't even fantisize about children. So why don't we agree that he was born with a mental defect given to him by God, his creator? Why isn't he afforded some sort of protection due to his condition?
If you want my personal opinion though...go all Pulp Fiction on him: Go to work on him with a pair of pliers and a blow torch.
Well Andywarhol, God is forgiving but He never said we don't have to suffer the consequences of choices we make in life. This sick man was made by God but his disease is in a way a sickness of the mind but not because God made him that way but because of sin, the sin of pride, the sin of lust, the sin of greed, all these things have corrupted the mind so much that it appears he has a mental defect. It's just pure evil and nothing else.
It's hard to understand how someone could hurt a little child and I hope he is persecuted to the fullest. My prayers are with this child and healing both physically and mentally.
Due process, if found guilty, the only cure is a peaceful rest six feet underground.
He needs the death penalty. The system is too easy on sexual criminals. Just placing a person of this caliber in jail isn't sufficient for the crime he has committed. We need a system such as this: If you steal, you lose your hands, you murder an individual then you shall be murdered in the open public, you rape then your penis is cut off with no medication! I'm tired of paying for someone to have 3 hots and and a cot when I work 10-12 hours a day and live on a budget. Seems like jail has become a great place...It's too many damn people trying to get there!
A 3 year old baby!!! What a creep, I can't make excuses for this guy...just give him to some of the folks in China, the folks who skin the animals while still alive. Then say bye-bye!
onlynaugusta--what are you going to cut off if you have a female thats comits rape? This person will find his nightmare in prison and will be in baggy pants before its over.
AndyW:
Read The Shack Written by William P. Young. I do not claim to have all the answers and although this is a fictional book, it easily opens eyes to a whole new perspective.
The last paragraph should clear up any questions over his family lineage. I thinks that it is safe to say that no society has tolerance for child molesters and that they deserve no mercy. That said, most here have convicted this suspect based on ONE article in the newspaper! It's a wee bit early to storm the jail and lynch the suspect.
Heath Russell Wetherington, you are Low Life, Scumbag, Child molester.
Fish2: I'm not concern about the gender. My point is that whatever crime an individual has committed, they need to be punished in the same formation or worst. I know women don't have or shouldn't have a penis. Now a days with all the gay peformed operations it's hard to determine who has what. Once again. I'm not concerned!!!! I feel sorry for the child and that's all I care about. I hope Heath becomes Heather while incarcerated........No response needed. By the way, "commit" is spelled with two m's not one.
I defend HEath to the end. I have know him since he was in middle school and I am totally in shock that someone would make up such a tall tell. His dad is a prominent business owner and his mom is too. I know that makes no difference but just saying he wasn't raised ghetto. What in this world leads someone to go as far as to ruin someones life over a custody battle?
Oh, the NAPS thing on I-20, a funny scene on Wed afternoon was a NAPS car stuck in the median....too funny. They had a fire rescue truck "trying" to pull him out.
It is a sad day when a person(s) will go this far to gain custody. I hope they don't think people are this stupid to believe that a man, a step dad would hit a 3 year old in the privates with a HAMMER? Are you kidding me.....Do these people think anyone, other than themselves would believe such a story?
Hmmm, sent a post about this possible molester earlier today and it seems that someone took offense to it, reporting me as abusing, causing AC to delete my post automatically. My post was not nearly as "abusive" as many on here today, just put in my opinion. Tis okies tho---I think I know who reported it, LOL. Hope YOU are having a nice day!!