On Tuesday, a serial rapist who pretended to be an Uber driver to kidnap and rape women was sentenced to at least 41 years in jail.
According to Cleveland.com, in October 2017 and May 2020, Christian Burks of Ohio raped five women in Cleveland, including two he assaulted as Uber drivers. He pleaded guilty to all charges.
In court, some of his victims took turns addressing him.
“I hope you are haunted by my limp body lying in the backseat of your car. I hope you never live another day without the soul-crushing weight on your mind,” one of the victims told him. “I am not weak. I am not defenseless. I am not an object for you to use at your disposal. I will not be haunted by the thought of you.”
During sentencing, Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Joan Synenberg called Burks “cunning“ and “ruthless,“ adding that he preyed on women trying to get a Uber home.
“There is not one thing that the victims did where they bear responsibility for what happened to them,” Synenberg said Tuesday. “I hope they can free themselves of any space you occupy in their heads.”
Burks also assaulted another victim who thought she was getting into an Uber when he assaulted her. However, she wasn‘t able to look at him in court.
“I know there are many more men, and many more people, who have bad intentions that I cannot save them from,” she said. “But I can stand up here and tell you today that the world is a less safe and more dangerous place for all of these young women when this man is allowed freedom.”
A third victim cried on the stand when she testified and said that the incident haunts her every day, “I would never have thought my life would have gotten here. I was tricked into believing someone was what they weren’t.”
In his plea, Burks, a father of four, admitted to four counts of kidnapping, two crimes of abduction, one act of theft, and one count of domestic violence.
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