SEX OFFENDER HAS HIS DAY IN COURT

Daniel Bignell Jr. made his ini­tial appear­ance in Williams County Court Thurs­day morn­ing… sort of.

Actu­ally, Bignell appeared in court via video from the Cor­rec­tions Cen­ter of North­west Ohio.

The 40-year-old from Mont­pe­lier was arrested Tues­day by Williams County sheriff’s deputies on a grand jury secret indict­ment.

Bignell stands accused of four counts of gross sex­ual impo­si­tion, five counts of rape, two counts of attempted rape and three counts of kid­nap­ping, fol­low­ing inci­dents which inves­ti­ga­tors say hap­pened begin­ning in 1999 and con­tin­u­ing until 2010.

Attor­ney Gen­eral Mike DeWine released a state­ment late Thurs­day in which he said the inves­ti­ga­tion started when one of the vic­tims, who is now an adult, came for­ward. The crimes began when the vic­tims were as young as 13.

If con­victed of any one of the charges, Bignell, in addi­tion to spend­ing years behind bars, would be required to reg­is­ter as a sex offender for the rest of his life.