Suffolk News-Herald

A former substitute teacher for Suffolk Public Schools accused of sexually abusing a child when he was 17 will face trial as an adult.

Kenneth Joseph Duncan, 19, was in Suffolk’s Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Tuesday to determine if charges against him should be certified to the grand jury and whether he will face trial as an adult.

Duncan was only 17 when he allegedly committed child sexual abuse against an 8-year-old boy in the Archer’s Mill Road area. He has been held without bond in Western Tidewater Regional Jail since his arrest in March.

Judge William R. Moore Jr. found evidence offered by Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Marie T. Walls sufficient to send the charges to the grand jury. Moore also upheld the Commonwealth’s request to have the trial transferred to Suffolk Circuit Court for Duncan to be tried as an adult, even though he was a juvenile at the time the offenses allegedly took place.

The Commonwealth Attorney’s office charges that between Jan. 1, 2000 and Aug. 31, 2001, Duncan sodomized the child four times. He is also charged with six counts of aggravated sexual battery.

Walls said the sexual battery charges carry a sentence of one to 20 years in prison, and up to a $100,000 fine. Each of the sodomy charges carries five years to life.

A tentative date of Aug. 28 has been set for Duncan’s trial.