Pedophile, 69, who sexually assaulted girl since she was just 5 says it couldn't have been rape 'because he loved her'
PULASKI COUNTY, ARKANSAS: An elderly man who repeatedly sexually abused a child from when she was just five years old has said it couldn't have been rape because "he loved her".
According to court testimony, 69-year-old Donald Glynn Caple was arrested in March 2018 for raping the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, before confessing to authorities that he had molested her "millions" of times.
The Little Rock, Arkansas, native was subsequently sentenced to life in prison on December 11, according to a report by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Caple claimed he would have never subjected the girl to the horrific abuse as he wanted her to be a virgin on the day of her wedding, just like he was when he got married in 1973.
According to the report, the 13-year-old victim was pushed to the point of self-harm and she even attempted suicide due to the trauma from the abuse. "I'm still trying to realize that this is not my fault," she told prosecutors.
Following the abuse, the victim was diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, involving flashbacks, sleep deprivation and depression.
She told authorities how she had once asked Caple the meaning of the word sex after she overheard a classmate use the term, thereby sparking the abuse. According to her, Caple showed her pornography in response and began molesting her when she turned five.
It wasn't until the victim was 10 years old in 2017 when she asked him to stop, after realizing his behavior was wrong. But despite him agreeing to end the abuse, Caple allegedly groped her breasts the following year. This prompted her to confide her ordeal to a school counselor, who then notified the police.
Caple had allegedly offered her family a home to live in rent-free and was the babysitter for the victim and her younger brother.
In court, the sex offender explained his sick behavior saying he was cognizant of his wrongdoing but was "weak" to stop it. "I was doing it, but understood I shouldn't be doing it. I even tried to tell her we shouldn't be doing it," he said.
Meanwhile, the victim's devastated mother, 41, shared her daughter's anguish at the hands of the pedophile. "He has sentenced my daughter to a life of sexual trauma," she told jurors.
Caple also faces another rape charge for abusing the same girl in a neighboring county from December 2010 to September 2014.