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An ex-convict who obtained millions of dollars by subjecting his daughter’s ex-college roommates to forced labor and prostitution was sentenced Friday to 60 years in prison by a judge who labeled him an « evil genius » who used sadism and psychological torture to control every aspect of his victims’ lives.
Lawrence « Larry » Ray, 63, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by Judge Lewis J. Liman.
« There is no reason to believe Mr. Ray will age out of criminal behavior, » Liman said, noting that the crimes began when Ray moved in late 2010 into his daughter’s on-campus housing at Sarah Lawrence College, a small New York liberal arts school.
The judge said Ray charmed his victims with his « exaggerated sense of self » and his intelligence before « robbing them of their relationships, self worth, memories and then their bodies » after convincing them they had poisoned him and owed him for it.
« Through psychological terror and manipulation, he convinced them what they knew to be true was in fact false, » Liman said. « He beat his victims. He tortured them and at times he starved them. He degraded them sexually to the point where they lost any self worth. »
Once his vulnerable victims were diminished, Ray extorted them, forced them to engage in labor and sex trafficked one woman, Liman said.
« He had the evil genius to take people who were young, not minors, and he broke them … and then he used them for his evil needs, » the judge said.
