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HAMILTON — A Butler County grand jury will consider the case of a 41-year-old New Miami man charged with multiple felony sex offenses for allegedly having sex with girls between 1989 and 1997.

Kenneth Lee Ashcraft sat silent in Hamilton Municipal Court Wednesday morning, July 16, while two alleged victims, now 31 and 27, testified about a sexual relationship with "Kenny" that began when they were 11 and 12.

Ashcraft is charged with three counts of rape and three counts of unlawful sexual conduct with minor. After hearing testimony from the women during the short preliminary hearing, Hamilton Municipal Court Judge Dan Gattermeyer found sufficient evidence to bind the case over to a grand jury.

According to Hamilton police Detective Mark Hayes, additional charges may be included that involve as many as eight female juvenile victims, the youngest age 4.

"But I don't know if I will ever find all of them," Hayes said.

In the summer of 1993, one of the women said she met Ashcraft at a residence on Buckeye Street where he was renting a room from a friend's mother.

"We hung out. He had a paper route and I helped him deliver papers," she said. A week into the friendship, Ashcraft asked her to be his "girlfriend." At the time, she was 11 and Ashcraft 27. The relationship became sexual quickly, she said. They engaged in intercourse and oral sex, she said.

When questioned by her mother and police, the woman said she denied any sexual relationship, but it continued until she was 15.

"I was his girlfriend," she said. Eventually she said she broke off the relationship.

The second victim testified she met Ashcraft when he was working at a gas station in the summer of 1989. She went in to buy cigarettes and Ashcraft became friendly.

The woman said she began having sex with Ashcraft at a Hamilton motel and his mother's house. At the age of 14, she had a son with Ashcraft. That boy is now a teenager.

The woman said the relationship continued until she was 15 or 16. Until this past May, Ashcraft paid child support to his son. But the woman said the boy has not visited his father since allegations about other crimes involving Ashcraft and other children have surfaced.

The mother of the girl, who is helping to raise her grandson, said she wanted to press charges against Ashcraft back in the early 1990s, but her daughter begged her not to contact police.

"I regret it," the woman said. But she said it didn't stop her from trying to get her daughter and grandchild away from Ashcraft.

The mother of the first woman to testify said she did file unruly charges against her daughter when she was having a relationship with Ashcraft, but didn't get a lot of help from investigators in putting the man behind bars.

"I have been waiting for this for years," she said. "It's my daughter, but this is for everyone's daughter out there. There are a whole lot of them."

Police are investigating relationships that Ashcraft had with numerous female juveniles dating back to 1988, when he married a 14-year-old girl in Kentucky, Hayes said. The marriage lasted about six months, according to court records.

Police received a complaint in December making allegations against Ashcraft which led to the former victims.

Numerous complaints against Ashcraft of physical and sexual abuse are on file with Butler County Children Services dating back to the late 1980s, according to agency officials. One file contains a complaint of sexual abuse involving Ashcraft's daughter, who was removed from his custody, said children services Director Michael Fox.

Ashcraft remains housed in the Butler County Jail in lieu of a $225,000 bond.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2168 or lpack@coxohio.com.