Patel used a fake gun to intimidate, sexually assault 5 women.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Convicted serial rapist Hiten Patel was sentenced to 46 years in prison for sexually assaulting five women in Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the summer of 2012.
Three of Patel’s five victims were prostitutes, according to NJ.com, with prosecutors alleging he targeted them because he assumed they would be less likely to contact the authorities. However, during his trial Patel claimed his accusers were prostitutes he had solicited or been solicited by for paid consensual sex.
“I have not committed this crime. I am not a criminal,” Patel sobbed as he spoke before sentencing.
In one instance, he picked up an 18-year-old Delaware woman, promising to give her a ride to the Atlantic City bus station. Then, according to authorities, he pulled a gun on her. She escaped by jumping out of the moving van, but seriously injured her head while landing on pavement.
In another incident, Patel impersonated a law enforcement officer by showing a 21-year-old Camden County woman a badge and ordering her into a van. He then threatened the woman with what turned out to be a fake gun and sexually assaulted her.
Patel was subsequently arrested after the woman fled the van and was then connected to the other attacks.
“I’ve often wondered what I could have done differently so maybe you wouldn’t pick me,” said an unnamed victim who testified last year about how she was raped at gunpoint while Patel held her down by her throat, cursing at her and calling her names. “Under no circumstance does any woman deserve what you did to me,” she rued, looking at Patel as she told him he knew what he did.
Press of Atlantic City reported seven women testified against Patel at his three-week trial, which ended February 12, 2014, with a conviction on 22 counts.
The latest ruling means Patel will have to spend at least 37 more years in prison before he is eligible for parole under the No Early Release Act.