April 1999: Robert Gorghan of Petersburgh, New York is accused of raping a woman two years previously.

This is lengthy, complex, and quite sordid case. Robert Gorghan began a long term relationship with a woman in the 1970s. The woman he is alleged to have raped was her daughter, who was born in 1975; she believed Gorghan to be her biological father, but later found out he was not.

In April 1999, she contacted the police and claimed he had raped her two years earlier. She claimed too he had sexually abused her from a young age. Gorghan was not charged with the earlier alleged offences, but was convicted in 2001, and given a heavy sentence, upon which he immediately married the girl’s mother, Cheryl. What does that suggest?

The alleged victim claimed he had videoed the earlier abuse. And of course, this video was not produced, for the obvious reason. In 2006, Gorghan’s conviction was overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct; a retrial was ordered, and he was acquitted.

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