A man recently convicted of rape used deception to lull his victim into believing she was safe with him, Fulton County prosecutors said.
Taurence Callagain, now 36, met the woman at the H.E. Holmes MARTA station several weeks before the Sept. 6, 2015, rape. She thought Callagain had no sexual intentions toward her because he led her to believe he was gay, according to prosecutors.
The woman, who was in a relationship at the time, was “under the impression that their relationship was strictly platonic,” a spokesman for District Attorney Paul Howard said Tuesday in a news release.
During Callagain’s trial, a jury heard that the victim regularly rode two buses and a train to travel to and from work. On the night she was raped, the victim missed the final bus of the night.
“Callagain offered to give her a ride home so she did not have to walk a mile-and-a-half to her apartment in Allen Hills,” the spokesman said.
They stopped at Callagain’s house first. He told the woman he needed to pick up some marijuana, and she thought they would smoke some together in his bedroom, prosecutors said. Instead, the jury heard at trial, Callagain choked the woman and violently raped her.
“During the rape, Callagain told the victim if she fought or screamed, ‘I will get my boys to come in and hold you down,’” the spokesman said. “The victim heard a male voice in the house, so she was terrified that if she kept screaming Callagain would, in fact, do as he said.”
The woman eventually escaped and ran the three miles home to call for help, prosecutors said. She was treated at Atlanta Medical Center and was able to accurately describe to investigators the interior of Callagain’s home.
Authorities later found the victim’s underwear in his hamper, according to prosecutors.
“The defendant claimed the sex was consensual, but Callagain was later arrested,” the spokesman said. “The defendant has a pending aggravated assault case in Fulton County but has no other criminal history.”
Callagain will be scheduled for sentencing before Judge Eric Dunaway at a later date. He has been held in the Fulton County Jail since Friday.
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