A South Carolina teacher’s aide was arrested after he allegedly filmed himself having sex with his Great Dane and uploaded the videos online, according to a statement from the Lexington County Sheriff’s Office. Kevin Christopher Billups, 34 and from Columbia, was charged with eight counts of buggery for the assault on his dog Leiab and eight counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, arrest reports say. He was taken into custody just hours after posting the footage.
Lexington County Sheriff's Department
- Billups was caught out pretty quickly. A few hours after the video popped up online, police received a link to the clip and sprung into action. “Investigators immediately got a search warrant for Billups’ home and found evidence linking his home with that video,” said Sheriff Jay Koon in a statement. “We also found an external hard drive containing hundreds of images and videos of child pornography.”
- He was arrested at the school where he worked. Billups had been employed since 2012 as a teaching assistant at Lonnie B. Nelson Elementary School and was arrested at his workplace, though Principal Twanisha Garner insists no students saw him being arrested. “As you can imagine, we are very disturbed by the charges and are cooperating fully with law enforcement,” she wrote to parents in an email, saying that Billups had been put on paid administrative leave for the time being.
- None of Billups’ crimes are believed to have taken place on school property. While all parents of children in Billups’ class as well as his after-school program were made aware of the arrest, authorities were quick to point out that none of the crimes for which he was arrested took place on school property. The sex act with his dog took place at his home and the 900 child sexual abuse images on the hard drive was also Billups’ own and not linked to the school.
- If convicted, Billups could spend a while behind bars. While the bestiality charge, a felony, carries a maximum sentence of five years on its own, the sexual exploitation of a minor charge carries a maximum sentence of eight years behind bars. At the moment, Billups is still being held on $240,000 bond.
- Police are still investigating the case. While the dog has thankfully been taken to a rescue organization, police continue to look into the case and uncover more information about what happened. “This is still an active investigation. Our work on this case continues as part of the South Carolina Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force,” said Sheriff Koon.
