Convicted serial rapist pleads to NKY charges; admits decade-long relationship with victim
A convicted serial rapist admitted Thursday to the sexual assaults of half a dozen victims in Northern Kentucky, court records show.
William Blankenship, 59, pleaded guilty in Campbell County Circuit Court to numerous counts including rape, sodomy, kidnapping, burglary and unlawful transaction with a minor.
In exchange for his plea, prosecutors agreed to dismiss six other counts Blankenship was facing as part of a 26-count indictment returned in July 2021.
Those counts are related to the forced sexual assaults of three women and two juvenile girls from 1987 to 2000 in Fort Thomas and Southgate.
He also engaged in an illegal sexual relationship with a 13-year-old girl in 1989, which lasted for roughly 10 years, according to prosecutors.
During that time, Blankenship stopped “burglarizing the homes of women and young females in order to satiate his abominable sexual proclivities,” prosecutors wrote in court filings.
The girl lived with Blankenship as some sort of "child bride" and he largely kept her under his thumb, prosecutors said. "He kept her relatively isolated in their home and withheld financial freedom or the ability to have unfettered contact with the outside world."
Their relationship wasn't a secret. Blankenship's family lived in the same house and they knew each other's friends. The girl even brought the then-30-year-old Blankenship with her to her high school prom.
Around the time that relationship ended in 1999, prosecutors say, Blankenship raped two juvenile sisters at their father’s home in Fort Thomas.
Prosecutors say Blankenship began raping and sexually assaulting women and young girls as early as 1983.
Authorities in Hamilton County first charged Blankenship with sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl, a 14-year-old girl and a woman between 1999 and 2001. The attacks happened in the area of Mount Washington and Anderson Township, within a two-mile radius, officials said.
He was sentenced early last year to 19 years in an Ohio prison.
To identify Blankenship, investigators started with DNA from decades-old rape kits.
Using the Y chromosome in that DNA – which passes down paternally – detectives reached out to a genealogy website to trace the DNA to Blankenship's family.
Investigators were able to get a search warrant and test Blankenship directly.
While incarcerated for the Hamilton County charges, Blankenship expressed concerns about possible charges in Northern Kentucky. That led detectives to revisit unsolved rapes and, eventually, Blankenship’s victims in Campbell County.
Blankenship’s public defender has yet to respond to a phone call and email from The Enquirer.
Campbell County Commonwealth’s Attorney Michelle Snodgrass said her office is recommending Blankenship serve a 50-year prison term.
He’s expected to appear before Judge Julie Reinhardt Ward for sentencing on Feb. 28.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Convicted serial rapist William Blankenship admits more rapes in NKY
