MARYSVILLE, Ohio — A National Guard major who has said he wanted to adopt a girl from Africa to protect her from rape has been indicted on charges he sexually abused three children, including two of his own.
A grand jury in central Ohio indicted the Marysville man on Monday on charges of rape, sexual battery and gross sexual imposition between 2006 and 2012. The 17-count indictment says he's the father of two of the children but doesn't give his relationship with the third.
The Associated Press isn't naming the 40-year-old man to protect the children's identities.
The man arrived in Kuwait at the end of June for a one-year deployment, Ohio National Guard spokesman James Sims said on Tuesday. The man, who was working as a medical operations officer with the 371st Sustainment Brigade, has been released from duty and is "being sent back to the United States," Sims said.
In a 2008 story in a military publication, the man spoke about his large family and about wanting to adopt a girl to protect her from sexual assault.
Of the three children cited in the indictment, two are in foster care, and the third is with her father, who is not the National Guard major, according to the Union County prosecutor's office.
Up to 11 children lived with the man and his spouse at a house in Marysville, a city of 22,000 residents northwest of Columbus, Marysville Police Department records show.
Police helped with the removal of 11 children from the house last August, according to a police report. Another report shows that three days later police received a report from the county's Children Protective Services division alleging that someone living at the same address as the couple had been sexually abused.
