Registered sex offender convicted of raping 7-year-old girl he babysat

Charles Harris

Charles Harris

A registered sex offender was convicted of raping a 7-year-old girl he babysat while her mother was at work, the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release Tuesday.

A jury deliberated for 25 minutes Monday before convicting Charles Harris, 66, of rape, child molestation and false imprisonment, Fulton district attorney spokesman Chris Hopper said in a statement. The rapes occurred between December 2015 and March 2016.

Harris, known to the girl and her 5-year-old sister as “Uncle” or “Pops,” was a friend of the victim’s mother, Hopper said. While the mother worked an overnight shift, Harris would creep in the girl’s room, pin her down and rape her.

The girl told her mother about the sexual assaults in April 2016. A forensics exam the next month confirmed Harris raped the girl.

Harris was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In 1998, Harris pleaded guilty to child molestation stemming from a similar case in Cobb County, Hopper said. He also babysat the victim in that case.

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