In Re the Care & Treatment of Kennedy

HEARN, C.J.:

The State petitioned to have John Foley Kennedy committed to the Department of Mental Health (DMH) as a sexually violent predator under S.C.Code Ann. § 44-48-100 (Supp. 2001). After a bench trial, the court found beyond a reasonable doubt that Kennedy was a sexually violent predator and committed him to the DMH. We affirm.

FACTS

In March 1991, Kennedy pleaded guilty to committing a lewd act on a child and received a suspended sentence. The sentence was later revoked. In 1996, he entered two Alford pleas to committing a lewd act on a child under the age of fourteen. The first victim…