Virginia care worker who pleaded guilty to raping and impregnating two mentally disabled patients gets two life sentences
SPRINGFIELD, VIRGINIA: A Virginia man who pleaded guilty to raping and impregnating two mentally disabled women at a nonprofit where he worked as a behavioral technician will be spending the rest of his life in prison.
Bernard Betts-King, 62, was working at the MLVE Community Center — an organization that supports and provides employment opportunities for people with disabilities — in Fairfax County, Virginia, when the rapes happened, according to the Daily Mail.
The abuse was discovered when one of the women, who was of Korean descent and had the mental age of a five-year-old, went for a routine medical examination and was found to be five months pregnant. She reportedly could not comprehend what it meant to be pregnant and had trouble communicating with doctors.
She eventually gave birth to a biracial baby, but police could not identify a suspect as she did not know how to communicate what had happened to her.
Investigators got a breakthrough when the second woman, who has a mental capacity of a 12-year-old, went to the doctor to have a mole removed and was also found to be pregnant. She managed to tell detectives that Betts-King had touched her in a way she did not like, and a subsequent DNA test confirmed he was responsible for both pregnancies.
Addressing the court during the trial, Fairfax County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney George Freeman further stressed on how vulnerable Betts-King's victims were.
He revealed that one victim's pregnancy "came as a surprise to her mother" because she "did not indicate in any way to her mother that this was the case." He also said one of them had to undergo a Cesarean section because she did not understand the instructions to push.
In July, Betts-King, who initially claimed that the women had "came on to him," pleaded guilty to raping the women "through use of their mental capacity,"
Handing down the maximum possible life sentence on each of the two counts of rape this week, Judge Bruce D White said Betts-King's crimes were "so vile" and slammed him for showing no remorse.
"You have been found guilty of rape of the most vulnerable people in our society," he told the 62-year-old. "Until today, I found no sign of any remorse. You were in a position of trust where you should have been protecting them instead of acting as a predator."
The case might not be at an end just yet, with police stating that they believe he assaulted other victims at MLVE, as well as at another organization, Community Living Alternatives, in Fairfax.