LACONIA, New Hampshire — The imprisonment, torture and systematic rape of a teenage girl who accepted a ride home from a stranger after school was aired in horrific detail during a hastily arranged hearing Thursday in which her captor pleaded guilty.
Nathaniel Kibby, 35, will serve 45 to 90 years in prison, time that will likely be served out of state at the prosecutor’s request. His plea ends a case that captured attention locally and nationally after authorities begged for help to locate a then- 14-year-old girl.
The victim, now 17, was in the courtroom, along with members of her family.
Prosecutors detailed how she was kidnapped and escaped nine months later, at times in such detail that defense attorneys for Kibby complained.
According to Associate Attorney General Jane Young, the girl had blisters on her feet so she accepted a ride from Kibby in October 2013 while walking home from Kennett High School in Conway.
He soon pulled a knife and threatened to kill her.
He drove to his lot in a Gorham mobile home park, where he kept her initially in a storage container. He gagged her sometimes with a tennis ball held in place with elastics. He Tasered her and sexually assaulted her. He used an electric anti-bark dog collar that would shock her if she screamed out. He used zip ties to bind her so tightly that they left scars and she lost some feeling in her hands. He put a shotgun shell and wires in a condom, inserted it in her and said he would detonate them if she tried to escape. He stuffed a garden hose in her mouth for water while he left her, tied up and locked inside the trailer.
At several points, Judge Larry Smukler halted Young’s narrative because it was too graphic.
Kibby’s victim expressed forgiveness for her onetime captor as she addressed the courtroom.
“My name does not mean the same thing it did before Oct. 9,” she said to Kibby.
She went on to say she doesn’t view Kibby as “a monster” but as a person and that she forgives him.
Young said the state is recommending that Kibby be held in a correctional facility outside of New Hampshire, adding the victim and her mother are “in agreement” with the plea deal.
When given the chance to speak, Kibby said he recognized that people wanted answers from him.
“I don’t have the words at this moment,” he said.
“What you did is every parent’s nightmare,” Judge Larry Smukler said during the sentencing in Belknap County Superior Court.
Smukler was on vacation and returned to accept the plea, which prosecutors wanted wrapped up once Kibby accepted the terms, fearing he might reconsider, sources said.
Young was more succinct, calling Kibby a “monster.”
He pleaded guilty to seven felonies — including three rape charges.
Prosecutors said his victim tried to escape by scratching a secret message into a letter. Kibby asked her to send a letter home to her family saying she had run away and asking them to stop searching for her. But the victim used her nails to scratch the truth: She was being held against her will. Kibby noticed the marks and tortured her.
Prosecutors said it was Kibby’s counterfeit money — which he used to pay prostitutes — that eventually led to his capture. When he gave fake money to a woman, she pointed authorities to him when she was arrested in Maine.
Kibby told his victim police would be coming soon and dropped her off near her home in North Conway, but coached her to gave a false story to police. He threatened her and her family if she told the truth.
Under the plea deal, Kibby will avoid a trial on almost 200 charges and will not be prosecuted in federal court for counterfeiting money. He was given credit for 669 days spent in jail awaiting trial.
After serving two-thirds of his sentence, Kibby can ask for a sentence reduction and the state will not automatically object.
The hearing ended with Smukler addressing the teen.
“I admire your courage and the resources you obviously have. I’m not going to sit here and pretend everything will be OK,” the judge said. “That’s improbable. But I’m in awe of your ability to move forward and I wish you the best.”
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