Lock store license suspended for child sexual abuse suspect

A suspect in a child sexual assault case has had his business license to operate a lock and key store suspended in North Myrtle Beach for violating the city’s “moral turpitude” ordinance on a previous conviction.

Panteleimon “Peter” Spirakis holds the business license for Phil’s Lock & Key that was suspended on March 18, according to a letter from Bruce Young, revenue supervisor for the city.

The city council has called a special meeting for April 6 at 2 p.m. to consider whether the business license should be revoked.

Spirakis, 55, was arrested March 1 and charged with three counts involving criminal sexual conduct with a 4-year-old girl and boy.

Spirakis remains in jail without bond. An employee at the lock and key shop who answered the phone Monday declined to give her name, but said the store had not been informed that the license had been suspended. Questions were referred to the store’s lawyer, who could not be reached for comment Monday.

The business license was suspended “after city staff discovered that you were convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude in 2012,” said the letter from Young to Spirakis.

Spirakis is a registered sex offender in South Carolina. He was charged with committing a lewd act on a child under 16 in 2005 for an incident the previous year, but court records show he agreed to a plea and was released from prison. He was charged with the same crime in October 2010, according to SLED records.

Spirakis was arrested and charged in 2008 for allegedly molesting an 11-year-old girl for three years. He was sentenced to five years in prison in 2010, but that sentence was suspended to two years in prison and five years on probation, according to court records.

Spirakis is one of four suspects charged earlier this month in Horry County for sexually abusing the children on numerous occasions, including at a Myrtle Beach strip club, Chez Joey.

According to the city’s code of ordinances, business licenses can be suspended or revoked when “a licensee has been convicted of an offense under a law or ordinance regulating business, a crime involving moral turpitude, or an unlawful sale of merchandise or prohibited goods.”

This story was originally published March 28, 2016 at 5:58 PM with the headline "Lock store license suspended for child sexual abuse suspect."