Famous free solo climber jailed for life after raping a woman on a Yosemite hiking trip
Charles Barrett, 40, used his reputation in the sport to attack women in rock-climbing community
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A famous California rock climber has been jailed for life for sexually assaulting a woman multiple times during a hiking trip in Yosemite National Park.
Charles Barrett, 40, used his reputation in the sport “to assault women in the rock-climbing community, and when his victims began to tell, Barrett responded by lashing out publicly with threats and intimidation,” prosecutors said.
Following his arrest, Barrett also made more than 100 phone calls from jail to harass the woman and other alleged victims.
Barrett was convicted in February on two counts of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of abusive sexual contact and sentenced by a federal judge in Sacramento on Tuesday.
Prosecutors say that Barrett sexually assaulted his 19-year-old victim on three occasions during a weekend in 2016.
A sentencing memo in the case stated that on one occasion, Barrett lured her to an isolated area of the park where he “strangled her to the point that she feared death” while attacking her.
Three other women testified they had been sexually assaulted by Barrett in 2010, 2015 and 2016, reported SFGATE.
Prosecutors told the court that Barrett showed no “remorse or regret” for making the calls. Court papers state that during one call made in May, Barrett described the accusations against him as “wild” and “crazy.” He described them as “random girls saying whatever they wanted.”
“Barrett’s jail calls continue to show a complete lack of remorse and a mentality of victimhood that cannot be rehabilitated,” officials said in the document.