Kentucky man ruled ‘sexually violent’

A registered sex offender from Kentucky has been deemed a “sexually violent person” by a jury.

Craig Childress, 50, was ruled sexually violent and will remain in the custody of the Illinois Department of Human Services for treatment, according to a statement from Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office.

“This offender has a long history of committing violent attacks on women, and he should not be released back into the community,” Madigan said.

In 1987, Childress was serving in the U.S. Navy when he was convicted by a Quebec civilian court for raping a woman he met in a bar, according to the attorney general’s office. This resulted in Childress receiving a bad conduct discharge in lieu of court martial.

Childress then attacked and threatened to rape a woman in Kentucky within three months of his discharge, the attorney general’s office said. Hours later, he sexually assaulted another woman after coercing her into his apartment.

In 1989, he was convicted on charges of rape, attempted sodomy, burglary and unlawful imprisonment stemming from those attacks, the attorney general’s office said. He was sentenced to 10 years in the Kentucky Department of Corrections.

Childress was released from prison in 1994 and charged less than two years later with attacking a woman in Chicago while visiting a friend, the attorney general’s office said. He was convicted of attempted aggravated criminal sexual assault and sentenced to 29 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Under the Sexually Violent Persons Act, people who have been convicted of sexually violent offenses and also suffer from a mental disorder can be committed to IDHS custody, the attorney general’s office said. Prosecutors must prove that such offenders are likely to commit future acts of sexual violence if released from custody.

Childress was returned after the jury’s decision to the IDHS SVP Treatment and Detention Facility in downstate Rushville.