Oregon man sentenced to 25 years for multiple sexual offences

About 45 years after being exonerated of raping his then-wife in a trial that attracted widespread media attention, an Oregon man who was retried on a sexual assault charge was found guilty and sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison. A Marion County jury found John Rideout guilty of first-degree rape and first-degree sodomy in 2017, and a judge gave him a jail term of more than 16 years. Because the sodomy decision was not unanimous, Rideout, 65, was awarded a fresh trial on Thursday, according to the Statesman Journal. The United States Supreme Court declared such convictions to be unlawful in 2020. Last Monday, a jury took less than an hour to reach a unanimous decision finding Rideout guilty of sodomy. Rideout was given a 25-year prison term by Judge Thomas Hart on Monday. No alternate programs or early releases will be available to Rideout. In court, Rideout battled with the judge over legal issues, claimed the ladies had made up their assaults and called the guilty decision against him a "stage performance." In 1978, Rideout was put on trial for allegedly raping his wife in front of their young kid in their Salem apartment. Rideout received acquittal. Marital privilege as a rape defense was previously prohibited by legislation passed by the Oregon Legislature. In her testimony for the trial in 2022, the woman in the sodomy case expressed her hope that by returning, she would stop other women from suffering. Brendan Murphy, the prosecutor, asked for the longer sentence, claiming that Rideout had a history of preying on and injuring women dating back to 1978, when the alleged rape was allegedly committed but no legal action was taken against him.