Atlanta Man Pretended to Be Gay So He Could Earn Woman's Trust Before Violently Raping Her
An Atlanta man who convinced a woman he was gay to gain her trust was recently convicted of violently raping her in 2015, PEOPLE confirms.
Jurors returned a guilty verdict against 36-year-old Taurence Callagain on Feb. 25, unanimously finding that he lied to the unnamed victim in order to gain her trust and lure her to his home, where he grabbed her by the neck and forced himself on her.
Throughout the vicious Sept. 6, 2015, rape, Callagain threatened the victim, who was a lesbian in a committed relationship.
At one point, he warned that if she screamed or struggled, he would “get my boys to come in and hold you down” — a threat the victim took seriously after hearing another male voice inside the home.
Callagain first met the victim at a Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority station in August 2015, according to prosecutors.
“They rode the same train and eventually exchanged numbers,” reads a statement from Fulton County District Attorney’s Office. “The victim is a lesbian and has a female partner who she was in a relationship with when she met the defendant. Callagain led the victim to believe he was gay, so she was under the impression that their relationship was strictly platonic.”
The statement explains that the victim “regularly rode two MARTA buses and a train to travel to and from work.”
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On the night of the attack, she missed the last scheduled bus. That’s when Callagain stepped in, according to the statement, and offered to give her a ride home, sparing her the mile-and-a-half walk.
“Callagain said he needed to first stop at his house to pick up some marijuana,” the statement reads. “When they arrived, Callagain and the victim entered his home. At that point, the victim thought they were going to Callagain’s bedroom to smoke marijuana when he began to strangle her and proceeded to violently rape her.”
“She was terrified that if she kept screaming, Callagain would, in fact, do as he said [and call in his friends],” reads the statement. “Eventually, the victim escaped the defendant’s room, and she fled the location. The victim ran three miles to her home in the middle of the night. She then went to Atlanta Medical Center for treatment and called the police. The victim accurately described the interior of the defendant’s home, and her underwear was found in his hamper.”
Prior to his arrest, Callagain told investigators the encounter was consensual.
He has another, unrelated case for aggravated assault pending in Fulton County.
It was unclear if Callagain plans to appeal his conviction, and his lawyer was unavailable Tuesday.
His sentencing has not been scheduled yet.
