Just shy of his eightieth birthday, Kosciusko resident Sidney Bishop was sentenced Tuesday on seven counts related to the molestation of two young girls as far back as 2006, when the first victim was only five years old.
Bishop was charged with seven counts ranging from touching a child for lustful purposes to sexual battery and statutory rape. To protect the privacy of the victims, The Star-Herald will refer to them as Victim One and Victim Two.
Last Wednesday, a jury in Attala County Circuit Court heard the case presented by Assistant District Attorneys Jay Howard and Mike Howie.
Five of the convictions relate to the molestation of Victim One, a girl who was five when the abuse started in 2006. In graphic testimony that she delivered amid pauses to wipe tears from her face, Victim One recalled how Bishop and his wife Dorothy befriended her and her mother. Bishop soon began the molestation with touching, eventually escalating to the incident in which he was charged with raping her.
“At first, he was nice… then he would start touching me inappropriately,” she told the jury. “He would call me pretty and say that I was beautiful and that he loved me.”
Victim One then detailed several of the incidents with which Bishop was charged, leading up to the rape when she was about seven years old.
“I was crying and struggling, but there was nothing I could do,” she said. “I felt pain and then I passed out. When I woke up, I was covered in blood.”
Victim One testified that she tried to report the rape to family, but that her accusation was not believed. After that incident, she said, Bishop did not rape her again, but returned to touching her in appropriately.
It was when Victim One began hurting herself that she was removed from her home and moved to live with another family member who believed her accusations and sought help for her.
It was alleged that once Victim One moved, Bishop began molesting the second victim, 11 years old at the time, now 13. Victim One testified that the Bishops had become close family friends through church and they spent time together in the homes of both families.
“I felt violated, I guess,” said Victim Two, who testified that Bishop both touched her and had her touch him. “I didn’t want to tell my Momma because I know how she is and I was afraid of what she might do.”
Despite her fears of how her mother might react, Victim Two did, in fact, tell her mother about what had happened to her following the second incident. Her mother went to law enforcement and reported what her daughter had told her.
“I was angry and I was angry at myself,” said Victim Two’s mother on the stand. “These are people I brought into my home and trusted with my children.”
Kosciusko Police brought Bishop in for questioning and Det. Mark Hill, now with the Attala County Sheriff’s Department, said Bishop made
statements that were very unusual for someone being investigated on child molestation charges. As a result of Victim Two’s police report, the department learned of Victim One’s accusations, but could not question her at the time since DHS would not reveal where she had been moved to after she was taken from her home.
“He (Bishop) told me he was aware of the charges and he told me he did not touch her (Victim One) inappropriately,” Hill testified, adding that Bishop commented that the girl hadn't begun physically developing until she was 11.
Defense attorney Rosalind Jordan questioned why that was the only direct quote Hill included in his report and why Victim One was not questioned by the police at the time of the reports.
Bishop’s wife Dorothy testified that there was no opportunity for her husband to have done the things of which he was accused.
“If Sidney is on the porch, I’m on the porch. If he’s in the house, I’m in the house,” she told the court. She also said that although she knew Victim One well, Victim Two had never been in the Bishop home to her knowledge.
Beverly Hoskins, a Bishop family friend, also testified that whenever she saw the two victims in the Bishop’s company, the relationship appeared to be loving.
Following all the other testimony, Bishop himself took the stand, repeatedly answering, “I did not,” as Jordan enumerated the charges against him and asking if he had committed the acts. Bishop also said a surgery several years ago made it virtually impossible for him to have done some of the things or which he is accused.
Asked about the comments he allegedly made to Det. Mark Hill, Bishop did not deny the quote, but said his response to Hill was him “just being cute to the police.”
“You’re being accused of molesting another girl and you just bring this up about another girl?” said ADA Mike Howie.
“Well, you’d have to be blind not to see it,” said Bishop. ”I’d have to be blind not to see that she had some.”
Following closing statements, the jury deliberated and returned guilty verdicts on all charges on the same day as the testimony.
Victim Two turned to look at Victim One as the verdict was read and the two nodded at one another. Meanwhile, some of Bishop’s family and friends cried.
Bishop was taking into custody and returned to court Tuesday to face sentencing on the convictions.
The only individual to testify prior to the sentencing Tuesday was Victim One’s guardian.
“I would like to say that the 10 years she was sexually abused have the potential to destroy any human being. Sidney Bishop is a monster and he is the worst kind of monster – the kind that preys on children. He should not be society; he is a danger to society. He is a predator,” she told Judge Joseph H. Loper before the judge announced the sentence.
“She (Victim One) is the most beautiful person. She has so much to offer and I know (she) will overcome all of this with the help of therapy,” she said.
Loper then levied the sentences on the charges.
“It is a very disturbing type of case to hear, said the judge. “I recognize your age, but these children will have to live with the consequences of what you did for the rest of their lives, and you will have to live with them for the rest of your life also.”
Bishop was sentenced to 20 years, with five years suspended on the sexual battery charge. If he gets out of prison after 15 years, he will serve five years on supervised probation.
One each of the remaining six counts, Loper sentenced Bishop to 15 years running concurrently to the 20-year sentence, and a $1,000 fine for each of the convictions.
Bishop was lead from the courtroom to begin serving his sentence. If he were to be released, he will have to register as a sex offender.
Victim One’s guardian had mixed feelings about the sentence.
“I’m disappointed. He should have been sentenced to the maximum. But I know his age and he will never walk out alive and that is in everyone’s best interest,” she said at Victim One stood by quietly with a small smile on her face.
“She was very strong,” the guardian said, nodding at the young woman. “It takes a lot for someone to be able to tell their story.”
