A Florida man convicted of raping his neighbor will spend 50 years behind bars for the attack, for which he reportedly offered to make amends by working around the victim’s house.
Timothy Walding, 20, was sentenced Monday to 50 years for sexual battery, false imprisonment and armed burglary in the October 2017 attack of his 35-year-old neighbor, according to The Associated Press. Details of the woman’s account of the attack are chilling and may be disturbing for some readers.
During Walding’s trial in October, he told the jury that he had a consensual encounter with the victim.
However, the woman testified that Walding broke into her home around 4 a.m. wearing a mask and came into her bedroom.
The victim said Walding tied her up, threatened her with a knife and forced her to perform a sex act, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
The woman told detectives that after the attack, the defendant let her get dressed and they talked until he finally took off his mask.
The woman also said Walding told her that he picked the lock on her front door with a fishhook, adding, “you really should deadbolt your door because I didn’t really want to do this but I had to do it.”
According to BuzzFeed’s review of court documents, the victim said that when she asked Walding why he attacked her, he told her that “obviously it wasn’t a spontaneous thing and I had this plan.”
Walding also offered to make up for the attack by doing some yardwork or by fixing something around her house, the victim reportedly testified.
The woman declined the offer, prompting Walding to ask her to “shake hands so he knows she was not going to say anything to anyone about this.”
She agreed, but called 911 after he left.
Source: The Huffpost.
