(USA) A petite, disabled Army veteran and single mother stoically
told a judge how a man she met through an online dating site brutally
beat, choked, raped and sodomized her after she invited him into her
home.
She was testifying during a bond hearing for Corderell St.
George, who’s charged with rape and false imprisonment in the Feb. 5
incident. He has been held without bond in the Muscogee County Jail
since his arrest Feb. 28, and defense attorney William Kendrick tried to
persuade Superior Court Judge William Rumer to set a bond so St. George
could be released.
After hearing from the victim, Rumer declined.
The
victim testified that after the assault, she helped police track St.
George down by posting a fake profile to the online dating site “Plenty
of Fish,” through which she first met him. She said he had deleted his
old profile on that site and posted a new one, but had not changed his
photograph.
Using the fake profile she’d created, she made contact
with him, and not realizing who she was, he started making the same
pitch he’d made to meet her before, she said.
Prosecutor LaRae
Moore cited that testimony in arguing St. George would remain a danger
to others were he released from jail. Having attacked the woman in her
home, where she still lives, he presents a danger to her as well, Moore
said.
The woman described what began as a pleasant meeting. St.
George did not drive, and first invited her to his house, saying he had a
roommate. His roommate turned out to be his girlfriend, who also
testified Thursday, saying he'd been living with her since she met him
in November 2013.
The victim said she hadn’t felt comfortable
meeting St. George at his home, so as he walked toward her house Feb. 5,
she met him halfway and gave him a ride there.
Around 11 a.m.,
while her teenage son was at school, she and St. George sat at her
dining room table, played cards and had a few drinks. He seemed “mild
mannered” and “quiet,” she said.
That changed abruptly: “From out of the blue, he hit me,” she said.
Screaming,
she ran for her front door and unbolted one of its locks before he
dragged her back, saying “Shut up, b---h,” she said. He ordered her to
give him oral sex, she said. When she fought back, biting his hand and
reaching for a bottle to hit him with, he beat and choked her, she said.
He
choked her so hard she began to vomit, both on the pillow on her bed
and the couch in her living room, she testified. He pulled a weave from
her hair, and their violent struggle destroyed her flat-screen TV and an
end table, she said.
Finally she persuaded him she had to use the
bathroom, and as soon as she was free, she ran naked out the door to
tell her neighbors, who went back in with her to confront him, she said.
They found her home vacant and her back door standing open.
Clear
to anyone in the courtroom was the disparity between the size of the
victim and the suspect. She testified she was 5-foot-1 and weighed 135
pounds. Moore said St. George is 6-foot-6. He reportedly weighed 220
pounds when arrested.
Testifying on St. George’s behalf was a
grandmother who said he’d lived with her most of his life, before moving
in with the girlfriend. “I’ve never seen a violent side,” she said.
Saturday, December 27, 2014
Friday, December 19, 2014
Plenty of Fish Online Dating Site Leads to a Rape
By Steve Schmadeke; Chicago Tribune
On a cool fall night in 2009, a 38-year-old west suburban woman went out on a date with a public-relations executive she had recently met online.
The woman was supposed to meet up later that night with her younger sister. But after increasingly worrisome texts — including one that said "please help me" — the sister took a cab to the Lincoln Park neighborhood and with the help of staff finally located her in a hotel room, half naked and sobbing, according to testimony at a trial this week.
On Thursday, a Cook County jury took little more than 90 minutes to convict the executive, Ignacio Carrillo, who prosecutors alleged had drugged the woman before raping her.
Carrillo, 40, still faces trial for allegedly sexually assaulting another woman he met through the same dating site — Plenty of Fish — in 2011. He was charged in both alleged sexual assaults only after the second victim came forward.
Assistant State's Attorney Tom Prisco told jurors during closing arguments earlier Thursday that "under the guise of some sort of romantic evening, he would buy them drinks and then rape them."
"It's been a long five years," the victim told the Tribune after the guilty verdict was announced at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. "I'm glad that someone finally listened."
The victim had reported the 2009 assault at a Lincoln Park hotel to police, but she initially declined to move forward with the prosecution of Carrillo, according to trial testimony. However, she changed her mind when police contacted her after the second victim came forward.
According to trial testimony, Carrillo took the woman to two bars on Oct. 15, 2009, and then a hotel at 601 W. Diversey Parkway, but she remembered only bits and pieces of what happened despite drinking only a glass of wine and a single shot.
When the woman realized she was in a hotel room and tried to leave, Carrillo yanked her back inside and raped her, prosecutors said.
The sister eventually found the hotel she was staying at, grabbed her sister and ran as Carrillo lay "smirking" on the bed, according to testimony.
The victim's younger sister told the Tribune she had to scramble after getting the text that her sister needed help.
"I thank the taxicab driver, wherever he is, for getting me there," she said.
Carrillo, who faces 4 to 15 years in prison, showed no emotion but dropped his eyes when a judge ordered him taken into custody after the verdict.
His attorney, Daniel Radakovich, argued to jurors that the 2009 victim reported being raped because she was disgusted with herself after a one night stand with someone she didn't like.
Prosecutors were allowed to put on evidence at the trial about the alleged 2011 sexual assault to allow jurors to weigh Carrillo's propensity to commit the 2009 rape.
The alleged victim in that case, now 36 and a married mother of two, testified earlier this week that Carrillo ordered her a martini while she was in the bathroom at a Lincoln Park bar while they were out on a date.
She said Carrillo grew angry when she took only a sip from the drink. He poured what he said was olive juice into the drink, telling her to stir it in so she got "the roofie," slang for a date rape drug. The woman testified she thought at the time Carrillo was joking.
After going to another bar — where the woman drank only water — Carrillo raped her against the passenger side door of his Porsche convertible, prosecutors allege. He then wanted to take her to a hotel, but she insisted he drive her home.
"He said this could've been a nice evening, but I ruined it," she testified.
The next day the woman went to a hospital, reported being raped and a nurse called police.
Both women identified Carrillo through his profile on the dating site, prosecutors said.
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Facebook Romance Leads to Murder
(UK) David Hoyle, of Idle Road in Bradford, hit Rebecca Bamber, 43, with wine bottles at her Widnes home in June then repeatedly stabbed her as she fled.
Chester Crown Court heard Hoyle left the scene calmly after the attack and smiled at a neighbour who was calling 999 while trying to help Ms Bamber.
Hoyle, 39, was given a life sentence and will serve at least 25 years.
Hoyle, who previously had a 15-year relationship with Ms Bamber, contacted her in May through the social networking site.
Screams
After they spent the night together at her Mersey Road home, he attacked her. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Ms Bamber's neighbour raised the alarm after hearing screams coming from her house. He saw the 43-year-old at her window, covered in blood and mouthing "phone the police". The neighbour called 999 and went to the back of her house, where he found Hoyle in the garden standing over Ms Bamber with a knife.
He rushed back to his own house to find something to defend himself with but, when he returned, Hoyle had gone. He then saw Hoyle drive away in his van, who then "chillingly" smiled at him, the CPS said.
The court was shown CCTV footage of the scene, which showed Hoyle leaving calmly while Ms Bamber's neighbour was on the phone to the emergency services. A recording of the 999 call was also played to the jury, in which the man can be heard trying to comfort Ms Bamber, saying: "It's all right Becky, I'm here, the police are on their way, it's all right darling, stay awake."
Police caught up with Hoyle near Runcorn Bridge, but he rammed their vehicles and escaped on to the M56, where he was again stopped before being Tasered. Following his arrest, Hoyle made no comment at interview. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter, but the CPS insisted he be tried for murder. Speaking after sentencing on Wednesday, prosecutor Richard Riley said Hoyle's claim that he had not meant to kill Ms Bamber was "ridiculous".
"Hoyle subjected Ms Bamber to a brutal and sustained attack and clearly intended to do her really serious harm. "She'd been stabbed 11 times with two different knives and three broken bottles."
'No remorse'
He thanked the neighbour "for the courage he showed throughout this dreadful incident. His 999 call was the key to putting a very dangerous man behind bars," he said.
Det Insp Helen Spooner from Cheshire Police led the investigation. She said Hoyle had "shown no remorse". "We will probably never know the real reason behind Hoyle′s actions that day − only he knows why he subjected Rebecca to such a brutal attack in her own home," she added.
Ms Bamber's family issued a statement after the sentencing, saying: "We still find it difficult to believe that Rebecca has been taken from us in such a cruel and violent way. Not only has a mother been taken, but a sister and daughter too.
"It is difficult for us all to come to terms with what actually happened but, as a family, we hope that the conclusion of this court case will allow us some closure as we try to rebuild our lives and move forward."
Tuesday, December 02, 2014
More Evidence Online Dating Sites are Dangerous
(U.S.A.) Army lieutenant Peter Burks was killed in Iraq in 2007 but that didn’t stop dating website True.com from swiping his picture and using it in ads to attract women to their website.
The picture was spotted on two ad spots at free dating site PlentyofFish.com with the words ”Military Man Searching for Love” and ”Soldiers Want You!”
The Burks family is now planning to sue both PlentyOfFish.com and True.com for their parts in using the photo without permission.
The family says Burks died just days after the photo was taken and that he definitely didn’t upload the photograph to the website. In fact the photo was being used on a website to help raise funds to provide supplies to troops in Burks’ honor which is likely where the picture was stolen from.
The Burks family also notes that Peter Burks was engaged when he died which makes True.com’s claims of “Soldier’s Want You!” nothing more than a scam to attract users to the site through the use of fake profiles.
In the meantime a representative for PlentyOfFish notes that the website displays ads from hundreds of thousands of advertisers and is not in charge of the ads for those websites. True.com ads were quickly blocked by PlentyOfFish.com after the Burks family notified the website of the issue.
In the meantime True.com’s potential members might want to look for a dating site that doesn’t create fake profiles in order to lure them in.
What might be the most tragic part of the entire ordeal is that True.com founder Herb Vest attacked other dating websites during a 2006 Forbes interview, as he put it at that time:
“We had to establish a wholesome environment for courtship. Internet dating is populated, to a large degree, by criminals and married people.”
It looks like True.com has turned into the exact type of company it hoped to fight against just five years earlier.