Man charged with 'systematic torture' of three girls

<p>An Atlanta man is facing trial on Monday for what prosecutors call the "systematic torture" of three girls.</p><p>Rodney Williams, 42, faces 19 felony counts against him, including the charge that he raped an 11-year-old while he was infected with AIDS. His 16-year-old son Ryan and 18-year-old daughter Q-Tasher also face criminal charges.</p><p>"He was training them to never tell, always keep this a secret," said Linda Dunikoski, an assistant prosecutor. "They were for his sexual pleasure."</p><p>The children were sent to live with Williams after their mother, Shirley Ann Holmes, met him on a MARTA bus. He had persuaded Holmes, then homeless, to allow him to host her children.</p><p>Months later, the 11-year-old told police that she was raped the first week she stayed with the family _ abuse that continued even after her two sisters arrived two weeks later. Prosecutors say Ryan Williams sexually assaulted the two younger girls.</p><p>In between the sexual assaults, prosecutors say the girls were also physically abused.</p><p>The girls told investigators they were burned with lighters and singed with curling irons. At other times, they said they were forced to kneel for hours while Rodney Williams poured hot water on their hands.</p><p>This is not the first time Rodney Williams has been charged with sexual abuse. He faced rape and drug charges in 1985, molestation charges in 1992 and was arrested for allegedly enticing a child in 1999. He never served prison time for those charges.</p><p>Williams is not the only one facing charges. His 16-year-old son Ryan is charged with cruelty to children, aggravated sodomy and aggravated child molestation. And his daughter Q'Tasher, a Sunday School teacher, is charged with cruelty to children.</p><p>Friends paint a different picture of the man and his family.</p><p>The Rev. Edward Johnson, pastor of Flat Rock AME church in Fayetteville, Ga., said Williams and his family were regulars at church.</p><p>"I personally went over to their home a couple of times, and everything seemed to be a loving, caring environment," he said.</p><p>The two younger sisters now live in foster care. The 11-year-old is living with Rochelle Goodman, an aunt.</p><p>When Goodman saw her niece for the first time in months, clumps of the girl's hair were missing and burn marks marred her arm and neck.</p><p>Her aunt has noticed the girl's turned her emotions inward and does not talk a lot.</p><p>"I just wish it never happened, and he was not that kind of person," the girl said of Rodney Williams. "I just want to live a normal life."</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc108)</p>