Trial set for man charged with child rape Wichita, Kansas

BY RON SYLVESTER
The Wichita Eagle

A 36-year-old Wichita man is scheduled to go to trial later this month charged with repeated sex acts against a relative over four years.

Robin J. Adams is charged with raping, molesting and abusing the girl from the time she was 7 until she was 11.

The girl has told authorities that Adams held a gun to her head, held a knife to her neck, burned her with cigarettes, and threatened to drown her in the bathtub to keep her from telling.

The girl's mother has been convicted of aggravated child endangerment for knowing about the abuse but not reporting it to authorities. She is on probation. The girl is living in the care of state social services.

Details of the case were revealed in a motion filed last week by prosecutor Christine Ladner, who asked a judge to consolidate three cases against Adams for a trial set to begin Jan. 26. The motion is set to be heard Friday.

Some of the accusations come in the girl's own words, from a note she wrote to her case management supervisor.

The Eagle has a policy of not naming alleged victims of sex crimes.

Adams has said through his lawyer, Alice Osburn, that the girl is mentally ill and that she is fabricating the case.

Ladner countered that the girl suffers serious anxiety, depression and other psychological problems as a result of the abuse.

The girl wrote a note to her social services case manager listing 24 acts.
According to court documents, it included:

• Having a gun put to her head and being told "say bye to your mommy."
• Being locked in a dark bathroom for hours after she tried to call for help.
• Being handcuffed to a bed while performing a sex act on him.

She also wrote: "he said he was going to put me on the street to make money for him."
The prosecutor said Adams groomed the girl for abuse.

"He treated her as his 'girlfriend,' " Ladner wrote in one motion. "This relationship, accompanied by threats, allowed him to perpetuate the sexual abuse."

Last year, Ladner made a rare request for the girl to be allowed to testify via closed-circuit TV. While allowed by law, it has only been granted once in Sedgwick County in the past 10 years.
The law allows such testimony only when the witness is under age 13.

The case was originally charged in April 2007, but by the time it comes to trial in two weeks, the girl will have turned 13, forcing Ladner to withdraw her motion.

Adams is HIV-positive, according to court records, and was positive in the time period the girl claims he was having sex with her.

Although Ladner left the Sedgwick County District Attorney's Office at the beginning of the year to take a similar job in Shawnee County, she has received special permission to return to Wichita to prosecute Adams.