NEWPORT, NC – A Newport man is being held at the Carteret County Jail on a $1 million dollar bond after being charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 33–year old Morehead City woman.
On the 27th of July at 1 a.m., Carteret County Sheriff’s Office deputies were called to Atlantic Village Mobile Home Park on Tom Mann Road in Newport in reference to a woman in distress.
Deputies learned that the woman had to hide in the mobile home parkafter escaping from being locked inside a room at one of the homes located in the park. She told deputies that she was visiting the home of Steven George O’Neill, 55, of Newport. She explained that when she
wanted to leave the residence, O’Neill took her phone and locked her in a room by securing the door with a deadbolt lock and held her against her will inside his home on Tom Mann Road for four days, where shewas repeatedly assaulted and raped.
Once the home was identified by the woman, the Carteret County Special Response Team was called on to execute a swift entry into the home at 515 Tom Mann Road, Lot 68 where O’Neill was taken into custody. He now faces charges of second degree forcible rape and first degree kidnapping.
The woman was treated on scene by paramedics. O’Neill was taken to CarteretHealth Care for assessment under law enforcement escort.
O’Neill was booked Friday evening into the Carteret County Jail and appeared in court on Monday, July 30th.
If you have any information on this incident, you’re asked to call the Carteret County Sheriff’s Office at
252.728.8400.