BALTIMORE — His job involved teaching self defense to Baltimore City Public School students, yet police say they proved to be defenseless when a karate instructor, 56-year-old Stephen Kenion sexually abused them over and over again dating back to 2009.
“You have a man who at the time was in his 40s involved with at the very least an eight-year-old girl," said Baltimore Police detective Donny Moses. "We know that there was a 10-year-old girl and a 14-year-old girl. He’s truly a predator. He’s the definition of a predator, and we’re glad that we got him off the streets.”
Kenion’s first victim claims the sexual abuse began she was 14, and she had a child by him the following year.
Investigators say the two youngest victims came from Cherry Hill Elementary/Middle school where the suspect worked as a karate instructor from 2010 to 2012.
They were sisters who came from a difficult family situation and Kenion would allegedly buy things for them to earn their trust.
He was hired by City Schools a second time in 2020 as a vendor to teach martial arts, but has since been placed on administrative leave.
The school system issued a statement, saying there was no red flags in Kenion's background check or fingerprinting.
"We have three that we know about, but where there’s three, there’s four, five and maybe six, and we need them to step up and give us a call so we can hit him with every charge possible,” said Moses.
He's being held at Central Booking awaiting a bail review, on several charges including Second Degree Rape.
Anyone with more information on the case can call police at 410-396-2076.
