Md. duct-tape rapist pleads guilty in 5th case; sentence adds 50 years to his prison term

Tuesday, January 3, 2011
Associated Press

HAGERSTOWN, Md. — An acknowledged pornography addict convicted of four sexual assaults in two states pleaded guilty Tuesday to a fifth — the 1998 rape of a woman whose hands were bound with duct tape by a man hiding in her car.

Cambodian immigrant Pov Srun, 40, is known as the duct-tape rapist because he often used that material to restrain and blindfold his victims and obscure his face during attacks. He apologized profusely Tuesday in a lengthy courtroom statement in which he likened himself to a rabid animal.

“I deserve to be where I am,” Srun said. Washington County Circuit Judge M. Kenneth Long agreed and added 50 years to the 35 Srun is already serving.

Srun (pronounced “shrun,”) pleaded guilty to first-degree rape for assaulting a 28-year-old woman Dec. 8, 1998 at a Little League baseball field near Smithsburg.

According to an agreed-upon statement of facts, he noticed the woman at a grocery store and followed her home. On the morning of the attack, he hid in the back seat of her car. When she got in to drive to work, Srun produced a knife and asked for money but didn’t take any. Then he duct-taped her hands together in a way that allowed her to drive to the Twin Springs Valley Little League field. There, he put duct tape over her sunglasses, looped his belt around her neck and assaulted her.

He left DNA on the woman’s clothing that police eventually matched to Srun’s profile in a law-enforcement database. He was indicted on the rape charge in June.

In return for his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped other charges including kidnapping and unlawful restraint.

The former forklift operator is serving 35 years in Maryland for a second-degree rape and first-degree sexual offense involving two teenagers in Montgomery County in 2005. If he is ever released from the Maryland Division of Correction — possibly in 25 years — he faces another 34 and 1/2 years to 170 years in Pennsylvania prison for raping a 16-year-old girl and a 20-year-old woman in Franklin County, Pa., in 2004.

In three of the cases, he took pictures of the victims and left behind $200 to $300, police said.

Srun’s repentant tone contrasted sharply with his demeanor at his 2007 sentencing in Chambersburg, Pa., where he told the judge the sentence he got was “way too harsh.”

Srun wore a wedding band Tuesday but no family members were in the courtroom at his request.

At his earlier sentencing hearings, his wife Cindy had testified that her bossiness, infidelity and physical abuse of her husband had probably helped drive him to the attacks. The Washington Post reported that other family members testified in Montgomery County that he was reared amid violence and famine in Cambodia in the 1970s before the family moved to suburban Washington, D.C.

On Tuesday, Srun accepted full blame for his actions. He apologized to all his victims and their families for what he called his selfish behavior. He said that through his pornography addiction, “I became an out-of-control, sex-crazed maniac” who chose to prey upon women.

“I failed you in being a decent human being,” he said.