A suspected serial rapist was arrested in Clayton County last week on more than two dozen charges after allegedly drugging women, sexually assaulting them while unconscious and posting videos of the acts online, authorities said Thursday.
Edward Samuel Huffman, 27, is charged with seven counts of rape, according to court records. His other charges include counts of sexual battery, sodomy and sharing nude or sexually explicit images of others without their consent. He was taken into custody Friday, Clayton police announced.
“Based on the number of rapes Huffman is accused of committing, he is currently considered to be a serial rapist,” police said in a statement.
An investigation found that Huffman recorded himself as he “raped, sodomized and performed a number of degrading acts on the women while they were incapacitated,” Clayton police Maj. Frank Thomas said during a news conference Thursday. He said Huffman described the acts as “sleep porn,” and that his victims, some of whom considered him a friend, were unconscious “for a while.” At least seven alleged victims have come forward, which Thomas called striking.
“There are so many victims, and once things are put on the internet they don’t go away. This is going to be a haunting thing for these women for the rest of their lives,” Thomas said. “And he did it without their consent, some of them without their knowledge until we told them.”
On Sept. 9, Clayton police opened an investigation of rape that was reported to their department and Riverdale police by two women. One of the victims said she was alerted by a friend that an online pornographic video showed her being sexually assaulted by Huffman while she was unconscious, Thomas said. Police said the victim reached out after she shockingly found several other videos of her and her friends being sexually assaulted while incapacitated, which authorities said Huffman posted online for profit.
Each victim interviewed by police denied giving Huffman consent to have any sexual contact or allow him to post the videos online, police said. Thomas said it was unclear at this time which drugs Huffman gave them, but the alleged acts date to 2021.
Huffman used a fictious name online and met the victims in several states, though most were familiar with him through school or prior social gatherings, police said. He typically knew the victims for multiple years, with his alleged crimes occurring in multiple locations, including Clayton County and Riverdale, according to authorities.
“The majority of victims considered Huffman to be a friend and provided similar counts of being at social functions hosted by Huffman,” Thomas added. “Each victim advised that after being in Huffman’s presence they did recall being asleep for an unusual amount of time but did not suspect that he harmed them in any way.”
During the investigation, detectives learned Huffman had previously been accused of molesting a child whom he had supervised on several occasions.
He initially denied committing the alleged sexual acts against the women, but after being presented with several items of evidence, police said Huffman admitted to raping the victims and molesting the child. The child’s age was not released.
At Huffman’s first court appearance Thursday afternoon, he spoke briefly to Clayton Magistrate Court Judge John Parker and declined to have the long list of his charges read aloud. Parker explained to Huffman that the magistrate court cannot grant bond on felony charges and scheduled the defendant’s preliminary hearing for Oct. 16. Huffman will remain in jail at least until then.
When Parker questioned Huffman about his employment status, the defendant said he’d worked for Amazon until recently. Huffman said he expects to receive a final paycheck but, with no immediate prospects for earning further income, Parker said he would appoint a public defender to the case.
Late last year, one-time police recruit Kenneth Thomas Bowen, who terrorized the Clayton County community for years, pleaded guilty to rape and was given six consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. Police also described Bowen as a serial rapist, accusing him of attacking multiple women dating to 2015.
Bowen raped one woman by breaking into her home through a window, and surprised another after she answered his knocks at her door. He attacked a third as she walked to her apartment. During one incident, Bowen sexually assaulted a woman for two hours while she was nine months pregnant.
Clayton police are now asking any women who have had contact with Huffman to call 770-477-3747 (option 7).
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