true crime

No remorse: Why Stanford rapist thinks he got a raw deal.

 

We’ve heard from his father, from his friend, from his victim and even from the men who apprehended him. But now we have a statement from the man at the centre of it all, convicted rapist Brock Turner.

The 20-year-old swimmer and Stanford University student was last week sentenced to six months behind bars for the rape of an unconscious woman outside a fraternity party, in a case that has attracted worldwide attention.

Today, The Guardian obtained the statement submitted by Turner to Judge Aaron Persky during Thursday’s hearing, in which he pleads for a probationary sentence.

“The thought of this is in my head every second of every day since this event has occurred,” Turner writes. “These ideas never leave my mind. During the day, I shake uncontrollably from the amount I torment myself by thinking about what has happened. I wish I had the ability to go back in time and never pick up a drink that night, let alone interact with [the victim].”

The reference to alcohol as a cause of the crime is one of many throughout the nearly 1000-word letter, and provides a disturbing echo of his father’s statement in which the campus culture of “drinking and promiscuity” are mentioned as the root of his son’s crime.

“I’ve been shattered by the party culture and risk taking behavior that I briefly experienced in my four months at school,” Brock Turner continues. “I’ve lost my chance to swim in the Olympics. I’ve lost my ability to obtain a Stanford degree. I’ve lost employment opportunity, my reputation and most of all, my life.”

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Enter the second scapegoat. The press.

“I’ve lost two jobs solely based on the reporting of my case,” Turner laments. “I wish I never was good at swimming or had the opportunity to attend Stanford, so maybe the newspapers wouldn’t want to write stories about me.”

Turner goes on to insist that the trauma of the event and subsequent case are enough to ensure he will remain a law-abiding citizen in the future and, furthermore, that he will make it his “life’s mission” to be a positive social influence.

brock turner statement stanford rape case
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Brock and his father, Dan Turner, in court. Image: NBC

"I want no one, male or female, to have to experience the destructive consequences of making decisions while under the influence of alcohol. I want to be a voice of reason in a time where people’s attitudes and preconceived notions about partying and drinking have already been established. I want to let young people know, as I did not, that things can go from fun to ruined in just one night."

And that's where it ends.

"You don't know me, but you've been inside me." Read the powerful statement delivered by Turner's victim here.

It's likely the statement, along with those of his father, Dan Turner, and childhood friend Leslie Rasmussen, played a big role in Judge Aaron Perksy - himself a former Stanford athlete - handing Turner a seemingly lenient sentence; a decision which has now sparked a worldwide campaign to have him recalled.

So far, a petition to that effect on Change.org has attracted more than half a million signatures.

Turner's lawyers plan to appeal his conviction.

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