Sex offender sentenced to prison for probation violation.

Gavin Routh with his attorney, Doug Stevenson.

Sex offender sentenced to prison for probation violation.

#MasonCountyCrime.

By Allison Scarbrough, Editor.

LUDINGTON — A 24-year-old Amber Township man was sentenced Tuesday, July 23, in 51st Circuit Court to 26 months to four years in prison for violating probation on a conviction of accosting a child for immoral purposes.

Gavin Ray Routh, of 525 N. LaSalle Rd., committed “numerous violations involving things having to do with young females,” said Mason County Prosecutor Paul Spaniola. Routh was arrested last April for a charge of furnishing obscenity to children, and that case has not yet been resolved.

“There are persistent problems Mr. Routh has presented to the community,” Spaniola said.

Routh was sentenced June 5, 2018 to one year in jail and five years probation for a conviction of accosting a child for immoral purposes.

Routh approached a child, who was 6-years-old at the time, in a garage and exposed himself to her and asked her to touch his exposed penis.

“The young lady in this particular case, in my opinion, is a little hero for saying no and for going to tell her mother right away,” Spaniola said at the time of his 2018 sentencing.

Judge Susan Sniegowski said the child was someone who was familiar with Routh, who was a friend of the child’s family. “This was somebody Mr. Routh had regular contact with. You were in a position of trust with that family and you violated that trust by your actions,” she said to Routh.

Judge Sniegowski also ordered Routh during his 2018 sentencing to not have any contact with individuals under the age of 17 unless he received written permission and clearance from his probation agent.

Routh pleaded “no contest” to the charge April 24, 2018.

“Mr. Routh has a continued history of limitations of a developmental nature,” Spaniola said in 2018. “The court is aware that the defendant did receive an evaluation for competence. It did find him competent to stand trial, but there is a long history of limitations.”

“It is time for prison,” said Judge Sniegowski Tuesday, adding that there is “programming available in prison that exceeds what we have in our community.”

Routh received credit for 583 days served in jail.

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