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By Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A 70-year-old man has been charged with sexually abusing a young relative, who was visiting his rural Cushing home, court records show.
Richard Ferris Thackray III was arrested Tuesday and ordered held in the Payne County Jail without bail pending his arraignment this afternoon, court records show.
Following his arraignment, he was released from jail on $15,000 cash bail, court records show.
The child “disclosed that they do not know how many times Richard Ferris Thackray III has sexually abused them because they do not like to think about it,” Payne County Sheriff’s Investigator Lew Kellison alleged in an affidavit filed today.
The child disclosed that “Richard Ferris Thackray III had told them to ‘do things’ since they were as young as 7-years-old and too young to know what they were doing or about ‘private parts,"” the affidavit alleged.
The child disclosed that “they would listen to what Richard Ferris Thackray III told them to do because he was a family member,” the affidavit alleged.
One instance occurred late at night when the child and the defendant were watching television in the summer of 2023, the affidavit alleged.
Another instance occurred that summer in which “Richard Ferris Thackray III told them not to tell anybody because he would get in trouble with the police,” the affidavit alleged.
If convicted of child sexual abuse, the defendant could be given a prison term ranging from 25 years to life, court records show.
