CONWAY, SC — A South Carolina man caught on video having sex with a horse was sentenced to three years in prison yesterday after pleading guilty for the second time in two years to abusing the animal.
Rodell Vereen was also ordered never to go near the stable where the horse’s owner caught him and held him at shotgun-point. He apologized after admitting to buggery at the Horry County courthouse.
"I’m sorry about what I’ve done. I didn’t mean to do it. It’s my fault," Vereen said during the court hearing.
Vereen was arrested in July after Barbara Kenley caught him entering the barn at Lazy B Stables in Longs, about 20 miles northeast of Myrtle Beach.
She had been staking out the stable after setting up a surveillance camera and videotaping Vereen’s assault on her 21-year-old horse, Sugar.
Kenley said she became suspicious because Sugar was acting strange and getting infections, and she noticed things were moved around the barn and dirt was piled up near the horse’s stall.
It wasn’t the first time she’d caught Vereen.
In late 2007, Kenley found him asleep in the hay after assaulting her horse. For that offense, he also pleaded guilty to buggery, received probation and had to register as a sex offender.
"I’ve been through hell for the last year and it’s caused a lot of hardship," Kenley told The Sun News of Myrtle Beach.
"There’s a lot of ridicule and jokes going around."