Two Oak Ridge defendants who were previously charged with first-degree murder, aggravated rape, and abuse of a corpse in the death of a 36-year-old woman have now been charged with aggravated child rape and especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
Sean S. Finnegan, 53, and Rebecca E. Dishman, 23, were charged last summer with murder, sex crimes, kidnapping, and abuse of a corpse after Jennifer Gail Paxton, 36, was allegedly tortured, raped, and strangled, and her body was allegedly cut and broken before being stuffed into a freezer in a home on East Fairview Road in Oak Ridge.
The new child rape and sexual exploitation charges followed an investigation by the Oak Ridge Police Department, according to a press release from the office of Seventh Judicial District Attorney General Dave Clark in Clinton. Finnegan and Dishman have been indicted by the Anderson County Grand Jury, the press release said.
Finnegan and Dishman have both been charged with two counts of aggravated rape of a child (a charge that applies when the alleged victim is eight years old or younger) and 18 counts of especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a child.
Both have arraignments scheduled in Anderson County Criminal Court on May 28 on the new charges.
Finnegan and Dishman were charged in the earlier case on August 4 after a search of their home on East Fairview Road. They have been imprisoned at the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton since then. They have been charged in that case with first-degree murder, aggravated rape, abuse of a corpse, aggravated kidnapping, and tampering with evidence. Dishman was also charged with aggravated sexual battery.
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