B’WAY BEAST CAGED (2 mos. for girl-tryst)

In 2006, James Barbour, a 40 year old veteran actor, quietly surrendered to New York police on charges he seduced a 15 year old aspiring actress.  Barbour was first arrested in L.A. but was freed with the understanding that he would return to New York to face the sexual assault and sodomy charges.  He allegedly had sex with the girl in 2001 in a dressing room.  It is unclear why she waited five years to report the alleged statutory rape.

Barbour laid his furry mitts on yet a second underage aspiring actress, this one only 13 years old, prosecutors also charge.  Barbour, who once played the Beast in Beauty and the Beast, was in court on December 6, 2006, to answer charges that five years ago he seduced the 15 year old.  No sooner had he delivered his line, Not guilty, than prosecutors upstaged him with their bombshell about a previous alleged victim, an even younger girl who had also come to Barbour with her starry-eyed hopes for a career in the theater.  The 13 year old contacted authorities only after reading about the alleged attack on the 15 year old.

Prosecutors ask that anyone with related criminal allegations against Barbour call them at (212) 335-9373.

Barbour faces two months in jail after confessing in graphic language on January 3, 2008, to sex with the 15 year old.  He will remain free pending his February 29 sentencing to 60 days' jail and three years' probation.  With good behavior, he'll serve just 38 days.  Then follows three years' probation, during which he must attend sex offender treatment and inform any directors or producers he works with, in writing, that he has engaged in sexual conduct with a 15 year old.  The case with the 13 year old is too old to prosecute.

Barbour went off to jail on February 29, making his young sex victim cry by trashing her as a fame-greedy Lolita.  That's not true! the now 22 year old victim screamed at one point during an emotional hearing, at which Barbour was sentenced to two months behind bars.

(New York)