Man Rapes 5-Year-Old Girl, Blames Her For It

Man Rapes 5-Year-Old Girl, Blames Her For It

An Ohio man convicted of raping a 5-year-old girl blamed the victim for his crime during his sentencing.

Clifford Taylor, a 51-year-old former research scientist, was given the maximum sentence of 22 years on Nov. 12, the News-Herald reported.

In October, Taylor admitted in court to molesting his girlfriend's daughter while baby-sitting her sometime between May and July of last year, according to Cleveland.com. The child later told her mother, who went to authorities. Taylor was convicted on two counts of rape.

During his sentencing, Taylor blamed his defense lawyer for suggesting the plea deal he had earlier agreed to take.

“I was threatened with mental incompetence," Taylor said of his lawyer. "He threatened me, saying there was some reason I wasn’t thinking properly.”

Judge Eugene A. Lucci wasn't buying the excuse, and explained that Taylor's lawyer was only asking his client if a hearing to determine his mental competency would be necessary.

Taylor avoided spending his life in prison when he admitted to raping the child, telling a court that he got drunk and bribed the child with Pudding Pops to perform oral sex on him.

“I did not stop the child. That’s the part the prosecutor will get me on,” he said at the time. “She wanted a snack.”

During his sentencing, Taylor blamed the little girl for getting raped by him. More from the News-Herald:

“It’s not true! I was told to lie to you by the man sitting right next to me,” Taylor said Nov. 12. “I don’t even remember what I told you. But it wasn’t true. The lie was that I put my penis in her mouth for Pudding Pops. My penis did get in her mouth, but I didn’t put it in there. She put it in there. She grabbed me. She was experimenting. I was drunk and realized it too late.”

Several people in the standing-room only courtroom gasped at Taylor’s claims.

The convict went on to say he was "not a monster." Lucci responded by adding two more years to his sentence.

"Even in court he blamed the victim for taking his penis in her mouth as a form of experimentation," Lucci said. "At the age of 5!”

Taylor's attorney asked the judge to be excused from representing the rapist at his future appeal hearing.

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