Ex-Con Violently Raped Stepdaughters For A Decade: Queens Jury

QUEENS, NY -- It took a Queens jury only 30 minutes to find a Brooklyn man guilty of violently raping his two stepdaughters in a decade-long nightmare that started when the girls were just 12 and 14 years old, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Lorenzo Arline, 43, was convicted on multiple counts of raping his two stepdaughters, who bore eight of his children over the 10 years he abused them, said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.

"This was a horrible case of sexual abuse at the hands of someone who should have been caring for and protecting the victims," Brown said. "Instead, this defendant for more than a decade used physical violence and heinous threats of death and torture to continuously rape and control these children."

The nightmare began in 2005, when Arline moved into their Far Rockaway home less than a year after his release from a Florida prison, where he'd been serving time for manslaughter, court records show.

He started off by forcing the two girls, then 11 and 14, to sleep naked in bed with him. By March 2005, he forced himself on the 14-year-old girl and raped her, hitting her and threatening to shove a coat hanger insider her if she didn't obey, according to the testimony.

On occasion, when the 14-year-old left home without permission, she was dragged by her feet face-down across concrete pavement, prosecutors said. Once home, Arline violently raped and beat his stepdaughter, who he would eventually impregnate with five of his children.

Arline began raping his younger stepdaughter when she was 12 years old, according to trial testimony. He also threatened her with abuse and ultimately forced her to bear three of his children.

The nightmare went on for a decade until Arline hit the oldest stepdaughter, then 24, so hard that her tooth broke, according to trial testimony. She broke down and told an official at her child's school about the years of abuse, saying she couldn't take it anymore.

Arline was convicted on six counts of first-degree rape and one count of second-degree rape. He faces up to 50 years in prison and his sentencing is set for April 10.

Before he moved to New York City, Arline's criminal past could be traced back to Jacksonville, Florida, where he was convicted of manslaughter with a firearm and burglary in September 1995, records show.

He was sentenced to 14-and-a-half years in state prison for the crimes but was released after 9 years in 2004.

Lead photo via Shutterstock.