Crime & Courts

Serial rapist who targeted prostitutes sentenced to 79 years

An Anchorage Superior Court judge on Friday sentenced convicted rapist Richard Dorsey to 79 years in prison, with no time suspended, for a series of attacks on prostitutes between 2001 and 2004.

In October, a jury convicted Dorsey, now 47, on four counts of first-degree sexual assault, two counts of attempted first-degree sexual assault and six counts of second- and third-degree assault.

Prosecutor Brittany Dunlop said Dorsey's attacks fit a pattern: He would pick up a prostitute downtown or in Spenard before threatening her with a knife or punching her. In four incidents, Dorsey raped the women. Twice, the victims escaped, Dunlop said. There had been five victims in all. In a strange twist, Dorsey attacked one of the women twice in separate incidents.

Dorsey's attorney, Paul Maslakowski, argued at trial that Dorsey had sex with the women but the sex was consensual.

On Friday, the lawyers argued about "aggravating" factors -- including Dorsey's past bad behavior -- that might influence Judge Michael Spaan's sentence. Spaan could have put Dorsey behind bars for as few as 10 years or for more than 100 years, Dunlop said.

Two of Dorsey's victims delivered statements in court.

"I am a human being, and as a human being I shouldn't have had to go through what I've gone through," one woman said, speaking by phone.

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Before handing down his sentence, Spaan said the series of rapes amounted to the worst sexual assault case he had ever presided over and that Dorsey seemed to show no remorse. Dorsey declined to make a statement.

"What's striking is the amount of planning and almost animal cunning on the part of Mr. Dorsey," Spaan said. "I think, sir, you are extremely dangerous to women, to the community, to society in general. I think you have an unchecked rage."

Before Friday's sentencing, Dorsey was serving time for a 2006 incident in which he groped a woman at the Huffman Road Carrs grocery store. A judge sentenced Dorsey to five years in prison for that case.

Reach Casey Grove at casey.grove@adn.com or 257-4589.

By CASEY GROVE

casey.grove@adn.com

Casey Grove

Casey Grove is a former reporter for the Anchorage Daily News. He left the ADN in 2014.

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