A Lynchburg man was sentenced to life in prison Friday afternoon for raping a girl under age 13.
Joseph Edward Angove, 54, pleaded guilty in September to raping the girl and to two counts of aggravated sexual battery involving 12-year-old and 11-year-old girls in late November 2006.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Gretchen Hutt told Lynchburg Circuit Court Judge Mosby Perrow that both girls were struggling with recovery and that the older girl has had suicidal thoughts.
“Suicidal thoughts are not supposed to be in the mind of a 13-year-old,” Hutt said.
The girls’ counselor said both now have post-traumatic stress syndrome and are likely to have long-term mental health problems as a result of the abuse.
Hutt also told the court that Angove’s sex offender evaluation submitted to the court noted that he blames the victims for the incidents and is at a high risk to commit another sex crime.
In asking for mercy from the court, defense attorney Aaron Boone said that report also noted Angove’s long history of sexual abuse.
Boone said Angove was beaten by his father, raped by his sister, and was later raped by a stranger when he tried to run away from home to escape the abuse.
“When someone is raped as a child, it does something to your hardwiring,” Boone said, asking for a sentence short of life. “It ruins
you unless you can get counseling.”
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Angove was subject to abuse, he didn’t have the commonwealth’s attorney’s office to protect him or a community services counselor to whom he could tell his problems, Boone said.
Before he was sentenced, a sobbing Angove told Perrow he cared for the
victims.
“I’m really sorry for what I did,” Angove said. “But, I didn’t have sex with (her).”
In addition to the life sentence, he was sentenced to 10 years on each count of aggravated sexual battery.
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