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ROANOKE RAPIDS – A Roanoke Rapids man arrested nearly 15 years ago on child sex charges in Hertford County is now jailed for a recent similar crime in Halifax County.

According to rrspin.com, at around 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday (April 30), Halifax County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a Roanoke Rapids area home following a report of a sexual assault of a child.

Halifax Sheriff’s Detective B. Edmondson secured warrants for arrest on Billy Wayne Balmer, 38, for first-degree statutory rape and indecent liberties with a 12-year-old child. Halifax Sheriff’s Captain Scott Hall said Balmer was familiar with the victim.

Balmer was jailed without opportunity for bond and was scheduled to appear in Halifax County District Court on Wednesday.

According to public information available through the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction, Balmer spent one and one-half years in jail for his Jan. 18, 2011 felony conviction of abduction and indecent liberties with a child in Hertford County.

In 2014, Balmer began a near two-year jail sentence for felony indecent liberties with a child in Nash County.

According to the North Carolina Sex Offender and Public Protection Registry, Balmer is registered as a recidivist with a lifetime registration period. His registration date was March 17, 2016.

Balmer’s last address verification was March 11 on Madison Street in Roanoke Rapids.

Prior to his convictions on child sex charges, Balmer was given suspended sentences and served probation for several other crimes:

Simple assault/affray (2003 in Northampton County);

Communicating threats (2007 in Northampton County);

Uttering a forged paper/instrument (2007 in Halifax County); and

Assault on a female (2009 in Northampton County).