A Bay St. Louis man who was arrested for statutory rape and previously claimed he did not know the girl’s age has been arrested again for the same crime with the same girl, and a Poplarville man has been charged with the sexual battery of an 11-year-old Waveland girl.

On Jan. 11, Picayune Police Officers were called to the home of a concerned mother who noticed her now 15-year-old daughter was missing, suspecting she ran off with 18-year-old Radon Devante Ray of 8465 Harrison St., Bay St. Louis, said Assistant to the Chief of Police Jeremy Magri.

The mother of the child had previously signed a protection order against Ray to keep him from seeing her daughter after he was arrested on Dec. 20 of last year for the statutory rape of her daughter, who was 14-years-old at the time. After the previous arrest Ray claimed he did not know the girl was 14 , a claim the girl confirmed to police.

Officers checked into the new complaint and searched the area for her, finding her and Ray on Betsy Drive, Magri said. Through interviews and investigation it was determined that Ray and the girl had engaged in sexual intercourse in a nearby abandoned home, leading him again to be charged with statutory rape and the additional charge of violating the protection order, Magri said.

In a separate case that occurred in Hancock County, the Waveland Police Department received a complaint from a concerned person on Jan. 13 that 22-year-old Stanley Eugene Hart of Poplarville was involved in the sexual battery of an 11-year-old Waveland girl, according to a release from the Waveland Police Department.

A warrant was issued for Hart’s arrest on Monday and by Wednesday, the Waveland Police Department had him in custody on the charge of sexual battery, according to the release. Since Hart was living outside of the Waveland Police Department’s jurisdiction, the Gulf Coast U.S. Marshal’s Regional Task Force provided assistance in Hart’s arrest at his home in Poplarville, the release states.

Hart is being housed in the Hancock County Justice Facility on a $200,000 bond.