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Man accused of kidnapping woman at SC motel

SPARTANBURG, SC (WSPA) – A woman said a man kept her from leaving their motel room for a month and he choked, hit and pepper sprayed her, according to a report from Spartanburg Police.

Police responded to the Main St. Motel for a disturbance call on August 12 around 10:41 p.m.

The motel manager told police that a man was preventing a woman from leaving her room.

An officer knocked on the door of the room and a man identified as Ryan Cornelius Sharpe, 40, opened the door, according to the report.

They told him to come out and they detained him in handcuffs.

A woman came out of the room and said they had been there for around a month.

They asked Sharpe if he had prevented the woman from leaving and he said he didn’t.

The woman said she was being held against her will and Sharpe had broken her phone, according to the woman’s brother.

The brother said she told him to come get her so he came from Birmingham, AL.

He showed police the text messages she had sent him.

The woman told police that over the course of a month, Sharpe had choked her, hit her, put her in handcufffs, verbally abused her and sprayed her with pepper spray.

She told police she wasn’t able to leave the motel room except for one time when they both went to Walmart so she could get a new phone.

She said Sharpe sleeps on the floor in front of the door to prevent her from leaving.

Police say they saw blankets on the floor by the front door, which is the only exit.

She told police she has been in fear for her safety.

Sharpe was arrested and charged with Kidnapping, according to jail records.