Tony Hickman

A 25 year old man by the name of Tony Hickman has been accused of fathering a young teenage girl’s child. The sexual abuse had been going on for over a year before the girl, the daughter of one of Hickman’s friends, became pregnant. Initially, Tony Hickman denied ever having sex with the girl, but DNA testing has showed that he is indeed the father. Hickman was arrested for his alleged crime on Thursday of last week and was charged the next day. He is now being held at the St. Clair County Jail and bail has been set at $200,000.

What is especially strange about this case is that the mother of the teen did not only have any clue that the sexual abuse was going on, she also did not know that her daughter was even pregnant until she actually had the child. It is not fair to make any judgments about the family at this point, but for a young girl to go through an entire pregnancy without a parent catching wind of it is simply astounding.

Cases like this show how important it is to be heavily involved in your child’s life. There are signs to look for that may give you some clues about whether your child is being abused or not, and being able to identify them can put a stop to sexual abuse before it gets as far as it did in this St. Louis case.