Pasco man faces prison for raping, molesting more than a dozen children in 4 states

A 22-year-old man spent years in prison after allegedly admitting to sexually abusing 13 to 14 children before he turned 18.

Now Scott Hancock is looking at more than a decade in a Washington prison, after pleading guilty to one count of first-degree rape and two counts of first-degree child molestation in Franklin County Superior Court on Tuesday.

He faces 13 1/2 to 18 years in prison for the crimes. Prosecutors plan to recommend that he serve the minimum end of the range.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 18.

While normally these kind of sex crimes carry a possible life sentence, because they were committed before he was 17, they will have a definite end, Deputy Prosecutor Joseph Faurholt told the Tri-City Herald.

An investigation into Hancock’s string of abuse in Pasco started in January when one of his victims was caught molesting another child, court documents said.

Hancock started grooming the child when the boy was only 5, court documents said. The abuse allegedly happened in Oregon, California and Utah, as well as Pasco.

He also forced that child to rape other children, according to court documents.

Police believe the last time he abused the child was in 2018 when Hancock was 15.

He also abused three other young children in a Pasco home.

He was arrested in Utah after he left one young child severely scarred and allegedly molested three other children.

When police interviewed him in 2019, he admitted to inappropriately touching about 14 children, according to court documents. He didn’t provide any other details about the other abuse. Hancock was 17 at the time.

He was convicted of sex crimes in Utah and then later in Oregon. He was released on those charges in May 2023 and a warrant was issued to bring him to the Tri-Cities, according to court documents.