A Decatur County man who has served multiple prison stints has been arrested on suspicion of molesting two young girls, according to the Decatur County Sheriff’s Office.

On Thursday evening, Sheriff’s deputies arrested Eddie Henry, 47, of 156 Henry Lane, Bainbridge, and charged him with three counts of child molestation and three counts of aggravated child molestation.

Major Wendell Cofer of the Sheriff’s Office said Henry was arrested following investigation into a mother’s report alleging Henry had molested her two daughters, who live near Henry. Cofer said the two victims, who are between the ages of 9 to 13, were taken to the Lily Pad SANE Center, a sexual assault and child advocacy center in Albany, Ga., for forensic exams as part of the investigation.

While Cofer said he could not comment on Henry’s criminal record, he said the Sheriff’s Office was treating the case as “extremely serious.”

Henry, who is deaf and mute, is well-known to local law enforcement and has been to prison several times, according to an online database maintained by the Georgia Department of Corrections. His felony convictions, all of which were in Decatur County, are burglary, 2006; entering vehicle, 2002; attempted burglary, 2001; theft by receiving stolen property; 2000; and possession of narcotics/opiates, 1989.

He was most recently incarcerated between Aug. 7, 2009, and Jan. 23, 2009.

He has been arrested four times, by either the Sheriff’s Office or Public Safety, since 2005, according to previously published records.

Deputies assisting on sexual assault case at BHS

Sheriff’s deputies are assisting Decatur County School Resource Officers with a sexual battery case at Bainbridge High School, Major Wendell Cofer of the Sheriff’s Office said.

According to Cofer, School Resource Officers have thoroughly investigated the incident and asked for deputies’ help prosecuting the juvenile suspect in the case. Warrants are pending in the case, Cofer said.

According to Georgia law, “a person commits the offense of sexual battery when he or she intentionally makes physical contact with the intimate parts of the body of another person without the consent of that person.”

Sexual battery is punishable as a misdemeanor offense of a high and aggravated nature, unless the victim is under 16 years old, in which case the offense becomes a felony punishable by prison time.