Father sentenced to over 1,500 years in prison for raping his daughter

Depraved man Rene Lopez, 41, abused his own child over a four-year period and was sentenced to 1,503 years in prison. Lopez, from Fresno in California, USA, was sent down on Friday and was condemned by a jury on 186 counts of sexual assault in September. His charge sheet also included dozens of counts of rape of a minor and was handed what is believed to be the longest jail term in the Fresno court’s history. The Fresno Bee reported that Lopez’s daughter is believed to have first been sexually abused by a family friend but that, instead of protecting her, Lopez turned her into “a piece of property and used her to satisfy his sexual needs”.
Prosecutors said the victim was raped “two to three times a week” from May 2009 to May 2013, when the girl managed to escape. However, it did not stop him harassing her as he later drove by her new home and left love songs on her answer phone. He was arrested by cops in November 2013 when his daughter rang the authorities to report the abuse. Lopez’s daughter, who is now 23, told the court: “When my father abused me, I was young. I had no power, no voice. I was defenceless.”
After giving her statement she thanked the prosecutor and police officers who oversaw her case for giving her justice and helping her overcome her ordeal. Before being convicted by a jury Lopez turned down two plea deals which could have seen him spend just 13 years in prison. He also said that he should be released from jail for the time he had already done inside. Lopez refused to testify during the trial and wrote a letter to the judge saying he wasn’t given a fair hearing. The judge told him that he was given a fair trial and that the evidence was overwhelming which also included entries from the daughter’s diary that chronicled her father’s abuse.
The court also heard that when she became pregnant as a result of her father’s repeated sexual abuse, he paid for her to have an abortion. He claimed that his daughter was lying on the witness stand and that the allegations were all “hearsay”.
As he handed down the sentence Judge Edward Sarkisian Jr. told Lopez he was a “serious danger to society” who had abused a position of trust and engaged in violent conduct.
At the hearing he read out each individual count and the dates they were committed which included Lopez raping his daughter on Christmas Day. He also noted that he had never shown remorse for his actions. During the trial Lopez had tried to pin the blame on his daughter for the difficulties he found himself in.