DA: Hempstead man convicted of sex attacks on unconscious women
Cameron L. McDermott, 32, of Hempstead, pleaded guilty Friday, Feb. 9, 2018, to sexually assaulting two unconscious women in Manhattan, prosecutors said. Credit: NCPD
A Hempstead man pleaded guilty Friday to sexually assaulting two unconscious women in New York City — repeated attacks caught on video seized from his home, officials said.
Cameron L. McDermott, 32, admitted first-degree rape and first-degree sexual abuse after being charged last year in a 200-count indictment, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said in a news release.
McDermott is scheduled to be sentenced April 6 in State Supreme Court in Manhattan to 10 years in prison and 5 years of supervision following his release, officials said.
Authorities said the victims — one, attacked on eight occasions in 2010, the other attacked five times in 2013 — knew McDermott but were “unaware the conduct had occurred.”
The attacks came to light, authorities said, when Garden City police executed a search warrant during an investigation of McDermott as a suspect in a public lewdness and child pornography case.
That case came about after police said the Hempstead man exposed himself several times to women in Garden City over a four-month span — resulting in his arrest in January 2017.
The case against McDermott for the Garden City incidents is still pending, according to the office of Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas.
During the subsequent warrant search, authorities said Garden City detectives uncovered video and photographs of the women assaulted by McDermott in their Manhattan apartments.
That evidence was recovered from McDermott’s computers and USB drives, officials said.
“Cameron McDermott violated two women while they were unconscious and unable to protect themselves from his predatory abuse,” Vance said in a statement. “While a criminal conviction cannot begin to undo the damage done by these attacks, I hope his guilty plea brings a measure of comfort to the survivors in this case.”
Vance also noted the role of Garden City police, saying, “Had it not been for their diligence in executing a court-ordered search of his devices following an arrest in Nassau County, these assaults in Manhattan might have gone undiscovered.”
John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”
