Suffolk County man sentenced to 50 years in prison for rape of girl, age 10, Suffolk DA says
A Suffolk County man was sentenced Friday to 50 years in prison for raping his 10-year-old stepdaughter, conduct he admitted on secret recordings she made with a cellphone.
The man — whom Newsday is not naming, because doing so could identify her — was sentenced by Judge Karen M. Wilutis for two felonies, first-degree rape and first-degree criminal sexual act; and a misdemeanor, endangering the welfare of a child, the county district attorney’s office wrote in a news release.
He had been convicted April 5 by a jury. His court-appointed attorney, Christopher Brocato of Central Islip, said his client had rejected a plea offer by the district attorney's office to jail time served, which would have spared the victim from testifying at trial. The man had been in jail for about three years when the offer was made earlier this year. Shannon Wilson, a spokeswoman for the district attorney, Raymond A. Tierney, said the office had no comment.
According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, of sex abuse cases reported to the authorities, 93% of juvenile victims knew the perpetrator — 59% were acquaintances, 34% were family members and 7% were strangers.
In the Suffolk case, the abuse began when the girl was 10 and continued until she was 11, the release says. Brocato said the prosecution said the conduct, between the man and his stepdaughter, occurred between March 1, 2019, and May 29, 2019. He is around 39 years old, Brocato said.
The release says: “The victim secretly recorded conversations that she had with the defendant in which she confronted him about the abuse, and the defendant made incriminating statements.”
Those conversations involved discussions of explicit sexual activity and his suggestion that she had enjoyed what happened, according to Brocato.
The defendant testified at trial, Brocato said; his defense was that it wasn’t his voice on the recordings.
“The jury basically decided between the testimony of the victim and what they heard on the tape,” Brocato said, “that there was enough to convict him.”
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
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