Prompted by reports of sexual assaults of children at Wal-Mart stores in South Carolina, a state lawmaker is proposing a bill that would require major retailers to do criminal background checks on prospective employees.

The bill sponsored by Rep. Chip Limehouse, R-Charleston, would require the checks for all toy and children’s clothes retailers with multiple stores and gross annual sales of more than $15 million.

That would include Wal-Mart — the nation’s largest retailer — which has more than 25,000 employees in South Carolina, and other major retailers such as Kmart and Target, Limehouse said.

“While this can be construed as an encumbrance on the private sector, to me, the potential for a child being hurt outweighs the added (financial) burden,” said Limehouse, a commercial real estate broker who describes himself as “pro-business.”

There are no federal or state laws requiring retailers to do background checks, according to the National Retail Federation in Washington, D.C.

Limehouse said he drafted his bill in response to stories earlier this month in The State about a 10-year-old girl who authorities say was molested in 2000 in a Columbia Wal-Mart and a 12-year-old girl who reported she was fondled July 3 in an Orangeburg Wal-Mart.

In both cases, the accused assailants worked in the stores and were registered sex offenders.

Limehouse said because Wal-Mart stores in many small communities have become “essentially the town center,” they are the “perfect place for a pedophile to ensconce himself in a job.”

Limehouse said he has contacted Wal-Mart’s corporate office in Bentonville, Ark., about his intent to file his bill when the S.C. Legislature convenes in January.

Wal-Mart corporate spokesman Gus Whitcomb said Monday the company “would be open to looking at the legislation” but has no plans to change the company’s policy of not doing background checks on most employees.

“We would like to remind people that we’re talking about two separate incidents four years apart,” Whitcomb said about the South Carolina incidents. “Should we ever find a need to institute background checks for all employees, that’s definitely something we would look at.”

Whitcomb said a change in policy would have to be “driven by a particular problem that could be proven.”

Columbia lawyer David Massey, who is representing the families of the girls in the two S.C. incidents, said Monday he supports Limehouse’s bill.

“He is putting children’s safety first,” Massey said. “Unfortunately, our corporate citizens such as Wal-Mart should have done this a long time ago.”

Massey last month asked Circuit Court Judge Casey Manning to force Wal-Mart to release records of sexual assaults of customers by employees at stores nationwide. No ruling has been made.

The exact number of toy and children’s clothes retailers in South Carolina affected under Limehouse’s bill is unknown. The state Department of Revenue said Monday it cannot release information on individual companies, citing privacy laws.

Limehouse said he would like to work with business leaders before filing the bill in January to reduce the cost of doing the background checks. That could mean requiring background checks for only prospective male employees, he said. Most pedophiles are men.

Massey pointed out that a Florida law protects companies that conduct background checks on prospective employees from being held liable in civil lawsuits for negligence in hiring.

Reach Brundrett at (803) 771-8484 or rbrundrett@thestate.com.