STOCKBRIDGE, Ga. — Parents in one local neighborhood are furious after a child predator tried to kidnap a little girl in their cul-de-sac.
They’re wondering how a repeat offender keeps getting out of prison.
Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes got those parents some answers in Henry County.
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Neighbors who live in a Stockbridge neighborhood cul-de-sac thought their kids were safe playing outside until police say a child predator showed up, exposed himself and tried to kidnap a 9-year-old girl.
Channel 2 Action News looked into that child predator’s background and learned that he does this over and over again and keeps getting out.
“I don’t even understand why he’s on the streets. Why did he get chances?” neighbor Tredarius Coachman asked.
Coachman feels sorry for his 9-year-old neighbor who police say was almost kidnapped by child predator Robert Eaton.
Eaton has been getting convicted of crimes that traumatized children since 1993.
In 2003, he was convicted of molesting a child under 16 and a judge gave him 30 years. That judge ruled that Eaton only had to serve half of that sentence in prison and the rest on probation.
He was only out for one year when police say he was back at it again.
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On May 1, police say Eaton jumped into his mother’s car, pulled into the Stockbridge cul-de-sac, exposed himself to a 9-year-old girl, then tried to kidnap her.
The girl’s aunt said the judicial system has to do better.
“There’s no reason for him to not have served that full 30 years, if not more. I mean because he did exactly what he’s proven he was going to do...repeat offense again. Here we are now in 2023, and he’s up to the same thing. It doesn’t make any sense,” the victim’s aunt Shana Travick said.
Once Eaton served half of his sentence in prison, there was no legal authority to hold him.
Neighbors who are still traumatized by what they say he did believe the laws need to change.
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School is out and kids will be playing in their neighborhoods all summer.
Police are warning parents to make sure their children are supervised at all times. Because even in a quiet cul-de-sac where parents thought their children were safe, were not.
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