FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Brooklyn Man Sentenced to 22 Years to Life in Prison for Raping 13-Year-Old Girl In Basement Laundry Room in Gravesend
Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson announced that a 42-year-old Brooklyn man has been sentenced to 22 years to life in prison for first-degree rape and other charges for the 2013 attack of a 13-year-old girl in the basement laundry room of her Gravesend apartment building after threatening her with scissors.
District Attorney Thompson said, “This young girl’s innocence has been lost and her life forever changed as a result of this vicious attack. This defendant will now likely spend the rest of his life behind bars, where he belongs.”
The District Attorney said that the defendant, Bennett Castello, 42, of East 29th Street, in Midwood, Brooklyn, was sentenced yesterday to 22 years to life in prison by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun. The defendant was convicted in February of two counts of predatory sexual assault, two counts of first-degree rape, one count of first-degree sexual abuse and one count of first-degree burglary as a sexually motivated felony, following a jury trial.
The District Attorney said that, according to trial testimony, on April 29, 2013, at approximately 3:30 p.m., in the vicinity of West 2nd Street in Gravesend, Brooklyn, the victim, a 13-year-old girl, entered her apartment building and was followed inside by the defendant. He then followed her into the elevator, pressed the button for the basement and forced her out while threatening her with scissors.
The District Attorney said that, according to trial testimony, the defendant then forced the girl into the laundry room where he groped and raped her, then threatened to kill her if she told anyone. After the defendant fled, the victim ran upstairs to her apartment, told her parents what happened and they called 911.
The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Deborah Cohen of the District Attorney’s Sex Crimes Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Miss Gregory, Bureau Chief.
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