Mia Farrow's Brother Sentenced for Child Sex Abuse

John Charles Villiers-Farrow sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The brother of movie star Mia Farrow will spend the next 10 years in prison for sexually abusing two boys in Maryland.

John Charles Villiers-Farrow, 67, was sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison, with 15 years suspended.

Villiers-Farrow entered an Alford plea in July to two counts of child abuse in the molestation of two 10-year-old boys who were his neighbors in Anne Arundel County, Md., in 2002.

He had faced 39 counts. Authorities say he abused one victim for seven years, beginning when the boy was nine, and abused another boy from the ages of 8 to 13.

An Alford plea means the suspect does not admit guilt, but concedes there is enough evidence for a conviction.

Villiers-Farrow was arrested in November following an investigation that began when two men came forward in August 2012. At the time, Anne Arundel County police had recently received information that several children were sexually abused in the Edgewater area.

According to court documents, the boys were abused in Villiers-Farrow's home, and a few times in a nearby camper. The victims told police that Villiers-Farrow would show them pornographic movies. The encounters escalated to touching and then to oral sex, the documents said.

Villiers-Farrow made headlines in 1992 when he commented on the controversy surrounding sister Mia's custody battle with Woody Allen, and Allen's relationship with Farrow's adopted daughter Soon-Yi. At the time, Villiers-Farrow told People magazine, Allen "is going to be indicted, and he's going to be ruined. I think when all of it comes out, he's going to go to jail."

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People magazine described John as "a sometime screenwriter and boat salesman outside Annapolis, Md." A Baltimore Sun article from 1998 described "John Farrow" as co-owner of Chesapeake Catamaran Center in Annapolis, though that business has since been sold.

Villiers-Farrow also had a brush with fame in 1968 when he accompanied Mia and their sister, Prudence, to visit Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India. The Beatles arrived in India to meet with Maharishi while the Farrows were there.

He appeared as a teen in in the Robert Stack movie "John Paul Jones," which was written by his father, screenwriter and director John Farrow. Villiers-Farrow's mother was actress Maureen O'Sullivan.

The website IMDB says Villiers-Farrow also had an uncredited role in the 1954 Elizabeth Taylor movie, "The Last Time I Saw Paris." And a Brooklyn newspaper said Villiers-Farrow was scheduled to have a movie role at the young age of 5 months, playing a baby in his father's movie "Blaze of Noon" with Anne Baxter and William Holden.

Mia Farrow became famous for her roles in the TV show "Peyton Place" and in movies including "Rosemary's Baby," and Woody Allen movies including "Zelig," "Broadway Danny Rose" and "Hannah and Her Sisters."

More recently, she has served as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and as an activist for humanitarian aid and political change in Sudan.

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