Man accused of rape knew victim
Published 12:00 am Monday, November 14, 2011
By Nathan Hardin
nhardin@salisburypost.com
A Salisbury man accused of raping a 24-year-old woman was the victim’s ex-boyfriend, deputies say.
According to a Rowan County Sheriff’s Office report, 27-year-old David Michael Benge was arrested Friday morning after the woman ran to a neighbor’s house and called 911.
Deputies arrived at the house at about 10:30 a.m. and spoke to the woman.
Authorities said the woman had a male visitor at her house Friday morning when Benge arrived.
After seeing the man, Benge became enraged, and assaulted and choked the woman, the report said. The other man left the house after seeing Benge become upset.
The report said Benge “forced her to disrobe” and then sexually assaulted her in her bedroom.
The woman told officers, the report said, that she dated Benge for about two years, but that they had broken up. She also told deputies that they still “fooled around” occasionally.
When the man went to another room of the house, the woman said she went to a neighbor’s home for help.
Benge, of 165 Hunter St., was charged with felony second-degree kidnapping, felony second-degree forcible sex offense, felony assault by strangulation and felony second-degree rape.
He was in jail Monday morning without bond.