SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Twenty-year-old Sebastian Mayhew has been sentenced to two 25-year prison terms after pleading guilty today (11/9/23) to sex charges involving a child under the age of 12.

Mayhew – originally charged with three counts of rape or attempted rape and one count of child molestation – changed his plea to guilty on the molestation charge and one rape charge.

Online court documents do not yet specify whether the two 25-year terms will be served concurrently or back to back.

A Springfield police report written in January states that on Oct. 27, 2022, the victim told her mother that Mayhew had sexually abused her for five years, starting when she was 4 years old. On the same day, the victim was forensically interviewed and said Mayhew sodomized her and had penetrative intercourse with her.

Mayhew was interviewed. He told police that he sexually assaulted and abused the child until she was 9 and corroborated details of the victim’s account. He described the progressive molestation as an “urge.”

According to the court documents, Mayhew abused and verbally threatened the victim for years to prevent her from speaking out about the abuse.

Mayhew was remanded to the custody of the Greene County Jail to await transport to the Missouri Department of Corrections.