A Wheeling man pleaded guilty Monday in Belmont County Common Pleas Court to raping a child under the age of 12. He did so after Judge Frank Fregiato ruled the defendant was competent to stand trial.

That decision left the man with a choice:?Accept a plea agreement or face a jury of his peers, who would hear graphic details of the acts he had committed. James John Kirksey opted to accept the plea deal after a psychological evaluation determined he was capable of understanding his actions and going to trial.

After the 23-year-old Kirksey pleaded guilty to a pair of rape charges, county Prosecutor Dan Fry said he intends to seek the maximum sentence in the case — life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years.

The maximum penalty may be exactly what Kirksey deserves.

Although this crime may have been heinous, it did not mark Kirksey’s first run-in with the law. In fact, this was not even his first crime of a sexual nature.

When Kirksey was arrested for raping this child, he was already a registered sex offender. Even with that designation attached to his name for the rest of his life, Kirksey had little regard for the law.

For example, Kirksey failed to comply with a mandate that requires registered sex offenders to record their address with the sheriff of the county in which they live. Kirksey was not living at his registered address in Wheeling at the time of his arrest. Instead, he was residing with a woman in Bridgeport who has become his co-defendant in this case.

Jeannie Mae Carpenter is charged with complicity to the rape and was ruled competent to stand trial. A plea hearing in her case has been set for Dec. 7.

Our laws are in place to protect society, including our youngest, most vulnerable citizens. Kirksey’s plea means the child victim in this case has been spared from testifying at trial, but that is little consolation for the trauma the child already endured.

Kirksey is a danger to society and should be placed behind bars for as long as the law allows.