GRAY — An alleged child rapist arrested Thursday is charged with sexually abusing one boy in Kentucky and also suspected of raping another in Terrebonne, authorities said.

WWL-TV

Sheriff’s deputies arrested 36-year-old William Randall Gillingham, 401 Mobile Estates Drive, Gray, after the alleged abuse was reported to authorities Monday, according to Terrebonne Parish sheriff’s Maj. Brent Hidalgo.

In Louisiana, Gillingham is charged with aggravated rape, the state’s most-severe sex crime, which carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

He also is charged with being a fugitive from justice, since deputies discovered an outstanding warrant for first-degree sexual abuse and first-degree sodomy from Christian County, Ky., where Gillingham is accused of fondling an 11-year-old boy and forcing him to perform oral sex, according to officer Paul Ray of the Hopkinsville Police Department.

The Kentucky warrant is dated Sept. 25, just four days before authorities in Terrebonne were told he raped a 12-year-old boy repeatedly over a period of seven months, police said.

In a phone interview Friday, Gillingham’s father, Gary Gillingham, said his son was born in Hopkinsville, a town of about 32,000 in southwest Kentucky about 15 miles from the Tennessee state line. The elder Gillingham said he wasn’t sure what his son was doing in Louisiana.

“He’s over 30 years old; he contacts me every now and then,” he said.

William Gillingham is not a registered sex offender and has no prior convictions, Hidalgo said.

He will likely stand trial in Terrebonne before facing charges in Kentucky, he added.

“Normally he would deal with our charges first,” Hidalgo said.

Since the Terrebonne Parish jail is still being repaired after flooding from Hurricane Ike, Gillingham was shipped to the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, authorities said.

A judge set his bond at $250,000 for the aggravated rape charge, however, he is being held without bond on the fugitive-from-justice charge.