West Loop: Charges filed in homeless camp sexual assault

Kenneth Horner | CPD

Charges have been filed against a man who prosecutors say offered assistance to a woman at the West Loop Greyhound station, only to sexually assault her in a nearby homeless camp.

Kenneth Horner, 40, was on a Divvy bike when he engaged the 38-year-old in a conversation around 7:45 a.m. last Saturday, July 6th. When Horner learned that the woman had no place to stay, he led her to a camp under a viaduct in the 400 block of South Des Plaines and then sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said.

Horner repeatedly punched the woman when the woman told him to stop his sexual advances, prosecutors said. Horner’s attack was extended and violent, causing the woman to bleed so badly that a transfusion was later necessary, an assistant state’s attorney said in court.

Chicago police issued a community alert the next day to warn people about the incident and to ask for help in finding the offender. A worker stopped Horner at the bus station that same day and copied information from his ID, then passed the info on to police. Horner was arrested Monday night in the 300 block of South Jefferson, about two blocks from where the woman was assaulted.

Horner was paroled on March 7th after serving half of a two-year sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm. He has previously been sentenced to prison for two years in 2016 for being an ex-convict in possession of a knife and six years for narcotics in 1999.

Prosecutors charged Horner with one felony count of aggravated criminal sexual assault causing bodily harm. Judge Arthur Willis ordered him held without bail.

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