Mark Allen Elliott - Repeat Sex Offender - Charged with rape of 14 year old

A 35-year-old man charged after a 14-year-old girl reported an abduction and sexual assault in North Myrtle Beach is registered as a sex offender in North Carolina and spent 11 years in jail after pleading guilty to robbing and raping a woman in 1996.

Mark Allen Elliott, 35, of Tabor City, N.C., faces three counts of armed robbery, one count each of kidnapping, first-degree criminal sexual conduct, resisting arrest, and failing to stop for blue light after the teenage victim told police Monday that a man had robbed her and two friends at gunpoint on 19th Avenue South and Hillside Drive, then kidnapped and later sexually assaulted her, police said.

Elliott spent nearly 11 years in a North Carolina jail after he pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a home invasion, robbery and rape of a Tabor City woman on June 23, 1996, according to records from the Columbus County Clerk of Courts.

Elliott pleaded guilty to two counts of sex offense and one count each of second-degree kidnapping, common law robbery and first-degree burglary, records show. He had originally been charged with first-degree sex offense, officials said.

Elliott was released from prison on April 25, 2008, and his supervised parole expired on Oct. 22.

Elliott is listed as a sex offender in his home state and was required to stay on that list for 10 years, according to the N.C. Dept. of Justice.

Elliott was to be transported to J. Reuben Long Detention Center.

Bond will be set at a later date by a judge in Horry County Circuit Court.

The victim told police she had met two 17-year-old friends about 3 a.m. outside the North Myrtle Beach house where she was visiting.

As they were standing in the street talking, they noticed a red Toyota Camry pass them twice. On its third trip, the driver stopped, asked directions and then stepped from the car with what appeared to be a long-barreled gun.

He ordered them on the ground, took their money and told the boys to stand and start walking north on Hillside Drive, police said.

The man forced the girl into the car and drove her around for a while before stopping at a boat ramp near 58th Avenue North, sexually assaulting her, then leaving her. Police said she wandered for about an hour before finding someone to help her. She was taken to Seacoast Medical Center. Contact JANELLE FROST or KURT KNAPEK at 626-0300.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"
.........Sarah Tofte