A Durham man was arrested this week on child sexual exploitation charges. He successfully petitioned a Durham County judge to remove him from the sex offender registry in 2021.
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The News & Observer
A Durham man who previously was a registered sex offender was arrested Thursday on new allegations of child sexual abuse. John Benjamin Liles III, 56, is charged with first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor in a May 19 incident, court records show. Liles is accused of encouraging a 14-year-old to film and send a sexual video to him, according to his arrest warrant. Public records indicate Liles was previously a registered sex offender in North Carolina, but he petitioned in December 2020 to be removed from the registry. Under North Carolina law, offenders ordered to register for 30 years can petition to be removed after a decade without a similar conviction. Now-retired Judge Orlando Hudson granted Liles’ request in August 2021, court records show. Liles became a registered sex offender in 1999 after being convicted in Walton County, Florida, of possession of a video containing a nude child and possession with intent to distribute a photo of a child, according to court records. He served just under two years in prison in that case. Liles was also convicted in May 2005 of failing to update his address on his sex offender registration in Florida, records show. He spent a little over a year in prison before his release in August 2006, state records indicate. Florida’s Department of Law Enforcement Sexual Offender/Predator Registry still lists Liles as a registered sex offender. The registry indicates he moved to Durham in June 2009. Liles remained jailed without bail as of Friday afternoon, with a magistrate judge listing his “history of similar behavior” as justification for keeping him jailed. His next court date is tentatively set for later this month.
Lexi Solomon
The News & Observer
Lexi Solomon joined The News & Observer in August 2024 as the emerging news reporter. She previously worked in Fayetteville at The Fayetteville Observer and CityView, reporting on crime, education and local government. She is a 2022 graduate of Virginia Tech with degrees in Russian and National Security & Foreign Affairs.
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