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Gentry Sex Offender Sentenced For Molesting Child

BENTONVILLE (KFSM) — A Gentry man already imprisoned for a sex crime has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for molesting a child. Edward Shirley, 24, p...
E. Shirley

BENTONVILLE (KFSM) — A Gentry man already imprisoned for a sex crime has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for molesting a child.

Edward Shirley, 24, pleaded guilty Sept. 21 in Benton County Circuit Court to sexual assault after reaching a plea deal with prosecutors.

He was originally arrested for rape stemming from allegations that he molested a 13-year-old girl when she was 8. Shirley told the investigators in January that he molested the girl five years ago, according to the affidavit.

Shirley will serve a five-year suspended sentence once he’s released from the state Department of Correction.

In October 2017, the girl told Gentry police that Shirley groped her when she was 8.

Investigators later found Shirley, a Level 3 sex offender, was incarcerated at the Delta Regional Prison Unit in Dermott.

Shirley was sentenced in October 2016 to six years in prison for living too close to a school, according to Benton County court records.

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