HORRY COUNTY, SC (WBTW) – A woman pleaded guilty in court for her involvement in a child sexual abuse case and helped the prosecution team with her testimony.
Lindsey D. Honeycutt, 31, of Myrtle Beach, was sentenced on Wednesday on two counts of assault and battery of a high an aggravated nature, which is a lesser included charge of criminal sexual conduct with a minor, and two counts of unlawful conduct toward a child. She will spend 15 years in prison on.
Horry County Assistant Solicitor Leigh Andrew said Honeycutt’s testimony against her co-defendants help the prosecution make successful convictions.
“When Ms. Honeycutt came forward she not only cooperated in what the children had told me, she provided details that were necessary for the prosecution,” said Andrew.
Ambrose E. Heavener, Honeycutt’s ex-husband and one of four people charged in the case took an Alford plea on Wednesday.
Heavener, 33, of Conway, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, 1,209 days credited. He was sentenced on a charge of sexual exploitation of a minor in the first degree.
The four total suspects, including Honeycutt and Heavener, were arrested in March 2016 after Horry County police learned of extensive, and disturbing, sexual assaults being committed on two children, 4-year-old twins, over the course of a five-month span.
Horry County police said detectives received information on January 25, 2016 of sex crimes committed against two young children. Detectives spoke with the children and learned that they were being sexually abused by their family and friends of their family.
Forensic interviews of the children revealed that the sex crimes occurred at multiple locations in Horry County, according to Lt. Bonner.
In an incident report from Horry County police documenting the abuse, officers note that they spoke with an individual who stated she had been providing counseling to the young victims since May 1, 2015, after a Department of Social Services investigation revealed the children were “being forced to have sex with their siblings and their parents.”
During the investigation, detectives learned that some of the sexual assaults took place in Horry County at a location the victims referred to as “the dance club.” That location was later identified as Chez Joey, a strip club located at 716 Seaboard Street in Myrtle Beach, according to the report.
The report details how the children would go to work with Lindsey D. Honeycutt, one of the four alleged child molesters, who was a dancer at Chez Joey. While at the club, the children were forced to perform different sex acts, the report states.
Police say they later learned during the investigation that the sexual assaults occurred at three different locations in Horry County, namely, the Myrtle Beach home of one of the suspected child molesters, Panteleimon Spirakis, Chez Joey strip club, and a second home in Myrtle Beach. Arrest warrants for the four suspected of sexually abusing the children specify the addresses where the abuse reportedly occurred as: 407 Queens Road, 808 North 48th Avenue and 716 Seaboard Street, all located in the Myrtle Beach area.