Richland Missouri man sentenced to 40 years in Prison
A Richland man who sexually abused a victim between the ages of 10 and 17 was sentenced in federal court today. 41 year old Robert Norman Kennedy was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to 40 years in federal prison without parole.
On January 18th, 2024, Kennedy pleaded guilty to transporting a minor across state lines with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
The victim told investigators that Kennedy forced her to engage in sex and that he sexually abused her starting at age 10. After law enforcement began an investigation into the sexual abuse, Kennedy forced the victim to leave Missouri, and they traveled from Missouri through several states where he continued to sexually abuse the victim. Kennedy and the victim ended up in Georgia, where the victim reported they had lived in a van parked in the driveway of Kennedy’s brother’s residence and in a tent in the back yard. Law enforcement arrested Kennedy on unrelated charges in December 2022 at which time the victim and Kennedy were living at a motel. When Kennedy gets out of prison he is subject to a lifetime of supervised release and Kennedy will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison and will be subject to federal and state sex offender registration requirements, which may apply throughout his life.
