Incestuous offender gets life in prison

Although a formal sentencing is still a week away, a Lafourche Parish man who was convicted last week of sexual offenses against two family members is set to spend his life in prison.

Timothy Thibodeaux, 31, was found guilty of aggravated rape against a juvenile relative and aggravated incest against a separate relative who was under the age of 13 when the offense occurred. Both charges stem from 2007.

“These types of cases are particularly heinous, because some of the most vulnerable members of society are preyed upon by those persons who are supposed to protect them,” District Attorney Camille A. Morvant II said. “Mr. Thibodeaux fortunately will not be able to prey upon anyone, much less these victims, for the rest of his life.”

In protecting the victims’ identity, the district attorney’s office released neither the victims’ names nor their relationship to Thibodeaux.

Aggravated rape carries a mandatory life in prison sentence without the benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.

The aggravated incest charge arose from two assaults on the child during the same year, allegedly in the Chackbay community. The conviction carries a prison term between 25 and 99 years.

Assistant District Attorney Kristine Russell prosecuted the case. Russell said the statements of the victims, who were interviewed through the Children’s Advocacy Center of Lafourche, were “indispensable.”

“Because of the work of the forensic interviewer, Shannan Gros, we were able to enter the videotaped interviews into evidence and not subject the children to the additional trauma of testifying in open court,” Russell said.

Judge John E. LeBlanc heard the bench trial in the 17th Judicial District.

Thibodeaux is scheduled for formal sentencing on July 12 at 1:30 p.m. He is currently being held at the Lafourche Parish Detention Center on a $1 million bond.