CIA officer who sexually assaulted dozens of women given 30-year sentence

A longtime CIA serviceman who drugged, photographed and sexually assaulted much than 2 twelve women successful postings astir the satellite has been sentenced to 30 years successful national prison.

Brian Jeffrey Raymond, with a greying beard and wearing an orangish situation jumpsuit, sat dejectedly arsenic helium heard his punishment connected Wednesday for 1 of the astir egregious misconduct cases successful the CIA’s history.

It was chronicled successful his ain room of much than 500 images that showed him successful immoderate cases straddling and groping his nude, unconscious victims.

“It’s harmless to accidental he’s a intersexual predator,” United States Senior Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said successful imposing the afloat condemnation prosecutors had requested. “You are going to person a play of clip to deliberation astir this.”

Prosecutors said the 48-year-old Raymond’s assaults day to 2006 and tracked his vocation with the quality bureau successful Mexico, Peru and different countries, each pursuing a akin pattern.

He would lure women helium met connected Tinder and different dating apps to his government-leased flat and cause them portion serving vino and snacks. Once they were unconscious, helium spent hours posing their bare bodies earlier photographing and assaulting them.

One by one, astir a twelve of Raymond’s victims who were identified lone by numbers successful tribunal recounted however the longtime spy upended their lives. Some said they lone learned what happened aft the FBI showed them the photos of being assaulted portion unconscious.

“My assemblage looks similar a corpse connected his bed,” 1 unfortunate said of the photos. “Now I person these nightmares of seeing myself dead.”

One described suffering a tense breakdown. Another spoke of a recurring trance that caused her to tally reddish lights portion driving. Many testified of however their assurance and spot successful others had been shattered.

“I anticipation helium is haunted by the consequences of his actions for the remainder of his life,” said 1 of the women who similar others stared Raymond down arsenic she walked distant from the podium.

Reading from a statement, Raymond told the justice that helium has spent countless hours contemplating his “downward spiral”.

“It betrayed everything I basal for, and I cognize nary apology volition ever beryllium enough,” helium said. “There are nary words to picture however atrocious I am. That’s not who I am, and yet it’s who I became.”

Raymond’s sentencing comes amid a reckoning connected intersexual misconduct astatine the CIA. The Associated Press reported past week that different seasoned CIA serviceman faces authorities charges successful Virginia for allegedly reaching up a co-worker’s skirt and forcibly kissing her during a drunken enactment astatine the office.

Still different erstwhile CIA worker — an serviceman trainee — is scheduled to look a assemblage proceedings adjacent period connected charges helium assaulted a pistillate with a scarf successful a stairwell astatine the agency’s Langley, Virginia, headquarters. That lawsuit emboldened astir 2 twelve women to travel guardant to authorities and Congress with accounts of their ain intersexual assaults, unwanted touching and what they contend are the CIA’s efforts to soundlessness them.

And yet the afloat grade of intersexual misconduct astatine the CIA remains a classified concealed successful the sanction of nationalist security, including a caller 648-page interior watchdog study that recovered systemic shortcomings successful the agency’s handling of specified complaints.

“The classified quality of the activities allowed the bureau to fell a batch of things,” said Liza Mundy, writer of Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women astatine the CIA. The male-dominated agency, she said, has agelong been a refuge for egregious intersexual misconduct. “For decades, men astatine the apical had escaped rein.”

The CIA has publically condemned Raymond’s crimes and implemented sweeping reforms intended to support women safe, streamline claims and much rapidly subject offenders.

“There is perfectly nary excuse for Mr Raymond’s reprehensible, appalling behaviour,” the bureau said connected Wednesday. “As this lawsuit shows, we are committed to engaging with instrumentality enforcement.”

But a veil of secrecy inactive surrounds the Raymond lawsuit astir 4 years aft his arrest. Even aft Raymond pleaded guilty late past year, prosecutors person tiptoed astir the nonstop quality of his enactment and declined to disclose a implicit database of the countries wherever helium assaulted women.

Still, they offered an unbridled relationship of Raymond’s conduct, describing him arsenic a “serial offender” whose assaults accrued implicit clip and became “almost frenetic” during his last CIA posting successful Mexico City, wherever helium was discovered successful 2020 aft a bare pistillate screamed for assistance from his flat balcony.

A “perfect gentleman”

US officials scoured Raymond’s physics devices and began identifying the victims helium had listed by sanction and carnal characteristics, each of whom described experiencing immoderate signifier of representation nonaccomplishment during their clip with him.

One unfortunate said Raymond seemed similar a “perfect gentleman” erstwhile they met successful Mexico successful 2020, recalling lone that they kissed. Unbeknownst to the woman, aft she blacked out, helium took 35 videos and close-up photos of her breasts and genitals.

“The defendant’s manipulation often resulted successful women blaming themselves for losing consciousness, feeling ashamed, and apologizing to the defendant,” prosecutors wrote successful a tribunal filing. “He was much than consenting to gaslight the women, often suggesting that the women drank excessively overmuch and that, contempt their instincts to the contrary, thing had happened.”

Raymond, a San Diego autochthonal and erstwhile White House intern who is fluent successful Spanish and Mandarin, yet pleaded blameworthy to 4 of 25 national counts including intersexual abuse, coercion and proscription of obscene material. As portion of his sentence, the justice ordered him to wage $10,000 to each of his 28 victims.

Raymond’s attorneys had sought leniency, contending his “quasi-military” enactment astatine the CIA successful the years aft 9/11 became a breeding crushed for the affectional callousness and “objectification of different people” that enabled his years of preying upon women.

“While helium was moving tirelessly astatine his authorities job, helium ignored his ain request for help, and implicit clip helium began to isolate himself, detach himself from quality feelings and go emotionally numb,” defence lawyer Howard Katzoff wrote successful a tribunal filing.

“He was an invaluable authorities worker, but it took its toll connected him and sent him down a acheronian path.”