'Monster': College ‘sex cult’ leader sentenced to 60 years in prison

A man accused of sex trafficking and exploiting a group of college students in 2010 was sentenced to 60 years in prison by a federal judge in Manhattan, New York on Friday, ABC 7 reported.

Lawrence Ray was convicted in April 2022 on several charges including racketeering, violent assault, extortion, sex trafficking and forced labor, according to the Department of Justice. Ray had moved into his daughter’s dormitory in 2010 where he “tortured” and “terrorized” a group of college students at Sarah Lawrence College.

The federal judge referred to Ray’s crimes as “sadism, pure and simple,” according to ABC7. Ray forced the students into prostitution and unpaid labor and physically abused them, according to the statements.

A friend of Claudia Drury, one of the victims, read that Drury was “forced” into “abject desperation.” The statement recalled one specific incident in which Ray “stripped me naked, bound me to a chair and suffocated me with a plastic bag over and over again until I begged for my life,” ABC7 reported.

Daniel Levin, another victim, reportedly said that Ray physically tortured him and his friends by brandishing a knife over Levin while others put plastic over the bathtub to catch the blood. Levin recalled that Levin forced him to choke on a dildo and hit him with a sledgehammer while pulling out his tongue with pliers.

Santos Rosario reportedly said he considered suicide daily because of Ray’s torture and said he was “physically abused, degraded and blackmailed.”

“Larry Ray is a monster. For years, he inflicted brutal and lifelong harm on innocent victims,” Damien Williams, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement on Friday. “Students who had their lives ahead of them. He groomed them and abused them into submission for this own gain. Through physical and psychological abuse, he took control over his victims’ minds and bodies and then extracted millions of dollars from them. The sentence imposed today will ensure that Ray will never harm victims again.”

USA Damian Williams on the sentencing of Lawrence Ray pic.twitter.com/xa6PqMZwVd

— US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) January 20, 2023

Defense attorney Marne Lenox sought a maximum of 15 years and reportedly said that Ray “has been punished” and “will continue to be punished,” according to ABC 7. Ray was arrested in 2020 and reportedly recently lost his father, stepfather and stepmother.

Ray said in a statement that he is in ill health and that “it’s frightening to feel this bad,” but did not mention the victims, ABC 7 reported.

The Southern District of New York and Lenox did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!