American gets double life for raping minor

BACOLOD CITY — People who packed the sala of the Kabankalan Regional Trial Court here yesterday broke into an applause after a judge meted double life terms on a former US serviceman for raping a minor.

But the troubles of 56-year-old Victor Pearson, a former US Marine Corps bomb disposal expert, are far from over. He is still facing 65 more counts of rape filed by three other minors, and three other girls are set to lodge their own complaints against him.

RTC Judge Henry Arles also ordered Pearson, who is married to a Filipina, to pay the victim P100,000 as indemnity for both counts of rape and P500,000 as moral damages.

"Out of extreme poverty, (the girl) stopped schooling to find work in order to help her parents, only to find herself an unfortunate victim of rape," the judge said.

Court records showed that Pearson raped the victim on Oct. 28, 2000 and on Dec. 4 that same year. She was only 15 years old.

In the second incident, the victim testified that Pearson put marijuana into her mouth and forced her to swallow it, causing her to feel dizzy and sleepy and her legs to become weak.

Pearson, she further recalled, inserted a vibrator into her sex organ several times and then had sexual intercourse with her.

The girl said Pearson did the same thing to her four fellow househelps.

She also related how she and another maid were forced to wear thin clothing without any underwear and dance while one Roy Dojoles, who himself is facing separate rape cases, took video footage.

Pornographic pictures and videotapes were seized during last year’s raid on Pearson’s house in Barangay Andulawan in Ilog town, 103 kilometers south of this city.

Lead prosecution counsel Rowena Guanzon lauded the conviction, saying the victim "can now move on with her life."

"She feels vindicated and this is important for her recovery," Guanzon added.

She said they will file another case for statutory rape against Pearson in behalf of a 13-year-old mental retardate next month. If convicted for this case, he faces the death penalty.