Homeless Ohio Woman Walked Miles to Face Her Rapist in Court
Last year a homeless Ohio woman repeatedly walked for miles to face her rapist in court, because, according to a local detective, "He was counting on her not showing up."
The woman—whose name was withheld from reports—was raped last spring in the Columbus area. Via the Columbus Dispatch:
The woman was sleeping under an E. Broad Street bridge that spans Big Walnut Creek just east of Hamilton Road when she was raped on the afternoon of March 12. She said she usually stayed there with her then-boyfriend but was alone when she awoke to a stranger attacking her. He struck her in the head repeatedly and forced intercourse, she said. After he ran away, she walked to a nearby convenience store and, bleeding from a head injury, asked a clerk to call police.
Thanks to a DNA database, local cops quickly identified Paul Hubert, 54, who claimed he had paid her for a consensual affair.
As the case wound its way to trial, the woman made it a point of attending at least six of the pre-trial court dates, reportedly begging for bus fare or walking as much as eight miles when prosecutors were unable to provide her with a bus pass.
Hubert pleaded guilty on February 10 and will serve three years in prison. He'll also reportedly be required to check in as a sex offender every 90 days.
Columbus police detective James Ashenhurst tells the AP, "If it wasn't for her cooperation, he would have walked."
"I didn't want to see him do it to anyone else," the woman—who is still homeless—told the Columbus Dispatch. "If he would do that to me, imagine what he might do to his next victim."
