A man out of Wise County has been sentenced to a total of 15-years in prison on sexual abuse charges.

 

39-year-old John Patton Hensley Head, of Big Stone Gap, entered into an Alford plea to multiple counts of sexual battery, indecent liberties with children, and sexual object-penetration.

 

An Alford plea maintains the defendant’s innocence while admitting that there is evidence for the defendant to be convicted. In this case, it functions as a guilty plea.

 

Head became the caretaker for two children in 2012 and soon after began to molest the oldest child, who was 7-years-old at the time. He began to molest the younger child when she was 10-years-old. A third victim, who was under the age of 6, was discovered during the investigation.

 

The abuse was discovered in 2019 when the oldest victim learned what was being done to her through a sex-education class at school. She then reported that abuse to a friend.