A Santa Ana resident was sentenced Thursday, Oct. 30, to more than 17 years behind bars for raping a woman who didn’t live to see the punishment handed down for the man who attacked her in downtown Huntington Beach nearly 2 1/2 years ago.
The victim’s parents spoke of the toll of the attack on their late daughter at the sentencing hearing for Kyle Patrick Ryan, 36, who was convicted Sept. 16 of rape, forcible oral copulation and false imprisonment, as well as a misdemeanor count of sexual battery.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Gary Paer sentenced him.
The judge noted the then-50-year-old victim was “extremely vulnerable due to her intoxicated condition” and that the defendant “violated a position of trust” by stopping and helping her into his car before attacking her.
The victim, who managed to escape, did not know her attacker, police said.
She succumbed to an accidental death when she was 52 shortly before the trial.
After she was raped, “she lived in fear at all times. She lost her confidence and she didn’t think she could get a job,” her mother said, adding her daughter was “happy and outgoing” before the attack.
“I watched her suffer for almost two years. She could not seem to heal emotionally from this brutal attack.”
Source: Orange County Register
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