STAUNTON — Cleared of a rape allegation weeks ago, a Waynesboro man has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor sexual battery charges in an Augusta County case involving two minors that was more than a decade old and took place when he too was a juvenile.
Earlier this month on Jan. 4 in Augusta County Circuit Court, a jury found 24-year-old Luke A. Thacker not guilty of raping a woman in 2018 when he was 18 years old.
On Thursday, he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges of sexual battery in a 2013 case involving two young girls. Despite being a teenager at the time of the offenses, Thacker was tried as an adult.
Augusta County Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Lorna Hilliard said Thacker was 14 years old when he molested the two young girls, both under the age of 8. He was accused of having oral sex with one of the children, and in another encounter he had a girl fondle him, the prosecutor said.
In a plea deal that saw two charges of aggravated sexual battery reduced to misdemeanors and two charges of sodomy not prosecuted, Thacker was sentenced to two years behind bars with both years suspended, giving him no time to serve. He will also undergo a psychosexual evaluation.