Terry Keegan: Former Homeland Security employee sentenced to 8 years in prison for molesting three girls under 14
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ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: A former Department of Homeland Security employee, who molested three girls, one of whom was under his care since she was about four years old, has been sentenced to eight years in prison, on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. The perpetrator is believed to even have recorded the girls after police found a destroyed hard drive and thumb drive during a search warrant.
Terry Edward Keegan, 60, was convicted on March 23 in the Orange County Superior Court on a felony count of lewd acts on a minor younger than 14 as well as single misdemeanor counts each of child annoyance, sexual battery, simple battery, and destroying or concealing evidence, as per a source.
One of the victims had lived with Keegan since she was age four and the other two girls were her friends. Orange County Superior Court Judge Andre Manssourian, when announcing Keegan's sentence, said that the 60-year-old had violated the girls' trust. "It turns out the fox was guarding the hen house, and undoubtedly the defendant took advantage of a position of trust," Manssourian said.
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Who is Terry Keegan?
Keegan, who was working with Homeland Security, also worked with the Transportation Security Administration and was a reserve deputy for the Orange County Sheriff's Department. One of the victims, now a teenager, who called Keegan "grampa", said, "I was young and vulnerable and I was taken advantage of," as per The Orange County Register. "We were children and the man who was supposed to be protecting us hurt us," the victim said. She pointed that he once slipped his tongue in her mouth during their routine good night kiss, which was sometimes just pecking on the forehead and the other on the lips.
The victim, 12, said that at the time, the incident lasted for a second or two and "just remembers feeling uncomfortable... I didn't know what to do or how to respond." Ultimately, she chose to pretend the tongue incident "didn't happen" and decided not to tell her "grandmother" out of concern that it could end their relationship. "I didn't want her to be alone," she said. After which, the girl said she would always "lower her head."
The teenager further revealed a slew of disturbing incidents, saying when she was in sixth grade, she once found a vibrator in his bedroom. He reportedly told her it was for an ex-girlfriend and that he was saving it for her, according to the Deputy District Attorney. She added the 60-year-old would often expose himself in the house and that once he even masturbated in the bed next to hers during their stay in a hotel room.
Terry Keegan sexual abuse toward minors under his care
Keegan's sick sexual abuse was alerted to the police involving the young girl and her friends several times over the years. In December 2021, he was hit with charges that were sealed due to his job and made public a year later. During a spring break, the 60-year-old made inappropriate comments to one of the girls and insisted, he takes them out to shop for swimsuits.
In another incident, Keegan allegedly touched one of the girl's buttocks and made "inappropriate" comments about her body and breast size. The youngster went home and told her mother who later informed the police. During a police search of his home, officers found a copy of a criminal complaint along with a destroyed hard drive and thumb drive.
Prosecutors said they believed Keegan took pictures of the victims which was also seconded by the latter. "One wonders what was on those hard drives," Manssourian said during the sentencing hearing. The judge also said the destruction of the hard drive is a "cloud that hangs over this case."