HARDIN COUNTY (WLIO) - A Hardin County man will probably spend the rest of his life in prison for kidnapping a Kenton girl in the fall of last year.
“Probably, counsel, the most heinous crime certainly in my tenure,” stated Judge Scott Barrett, Hardin County Common Pleas Court. “To violate a 7-year-old child that didn’t deserve this is beyond the kin of understanding.”
57-year-old Charles Castle was sentenced to 48 years to life in prison on the 16 charges that a Hardin County Jury found him guilty of, which include kidnapping, rape, attempted murder, and felonious assault.
According to the prosecutors, back in November of 2021, Castle went to the Kenton home of the 7-year-old girl, got her to go outside, and into his van. He then proceeded to take her to his trailer, where he allegedly had sexual contact with her and strangled her. Even though he was talking to law enforcement and being questioned about the missing girl during the search, he moved the girl from his trailer to an abandoned home outside of Kenton and tossed her down the stairs to the basement.
“Mr. Castle threw this child into the basement, whether he thought she was already dead and was just going to let her rot there in the basement or whether he had intentions of coming back to get her if he thought she was alive. Is that more heinous to think that winter was coming on? A child with hardly any clothes on, no shoes, to be thrown into a basement and not retrieved for hours, no food, no facilities. So, I can’t... I can't imagine a worse crime, I have never seen a worse crime in my career,” said Judge Barrett.
And through a victim advocate, the young girl passed on a two-word statement to Castle.
“It was ‘Go die’ that is all she said,” says the victim advocate. “Her parents don’t wish to make any further statement.”
Castle still denies he had anything to do with the crime and has the right to appeal his conviction. He was also classified as a tier three sex offender.
*Edit/Correction - Castle was sentenced to 48 years to life.
