A HIV-positive Kenyan man has been jailed for 66 years by a US court for raping two teenage girls two years ago.
William N Karanja, 34, received 40 years for two counts of second-degree rape, 20 for two counts of second-degree sex offence and six for two counts of knowingly attempting to transmit HIV.
Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge, Louise G Scrivener, also gave Karanja 15 years for three counts of recklessly endangering a minor, to be served concurrently. "I believe from the evidence that Karanja is a sexual predator," Scrivener said.
And as Karanja began his long stretch in a US federal jail, it emerged yesterday that he had a history of sexual offences dating back to his youth. A close relative who spoke to The Standard in London said: "Karanja has previously raped women in Kenya, but his victims were too scared to come forward. My family is devastated, 66 years in a foreign jail, ailing with HIV-AIDS, it's most regrettable, our heart goes to his wife and the victims," the cousin, who did not wish to be named, said.
According to The Gazette, a Montgomery County newspaper, the incident happened in June 2003 when Karanja invited the then-14-year-old girls to a 'party' in his apartment on 13200 block of Bristlecone Way, Germantown in Montgomery County.
When the girls arrived that night, they realized they were the only guests and called another male friend to join them, Assistant State Attorney, Mary Herdman, said. Karanja supplied the girls and their friend with alcohol, and all three juveniles ultimately passed out in various locations in the apartment.
At about 1 a.m., a neighbour said he heard a girl screaming "No" from inside Karanja's apartment. He looked in through a window and saw Karanja having sex with one of the girls while she attempted to push him away, Herdman said. When police arrived, they found all three children partially or completely naked and unresponsive to the officers' attempts to wake them up.
Both victims, now 16, made emotional appeals to the court. "He stole from me in order to get pleasure for himself," one said. "I was violated, taken advantage of and humiliated". The other said tearfully: "I think there should be no sympathy for him." [Passage omitted]
