BELFAST, Maine — A Brooks man who pleaded guilty on Tuesday at Waldo County Superior Court to gross sexual assault and other charges in connection with a brutal attack last November on his live-in girlfriend will spend five years in prison.
Arthur Williams, 25, assault ed the woman on Thanksgiving night, according to a report from the Maine State Police filed at Waldo County Superior Court. That night, Williams attempted to strangle the woman and punched her in the head. Then he used a homemade weapon — a long wooden stick wrapped with black duct tape — to beat the woman on her legs and buttocks, she told police several days later when she was able to report the assault.
He also used the weapon to sexually assault and injure her until she bled, according to reports filed at court.
“When I finally got up, my face turned blue and I forgot how to breathe,” the woman wrote in a victim impact statement submitted to the court. “I asked him to take me to the emergency room but he said no because he didn’t know what they’d do to him. For a while I thought I was going to die of a panic attack but after a while I felt more calm and remembered how to breathe again.”
Prior to that attack, the woman wrote, Williams was jealous and physically abusive. She said she had wanted to leave him but felt uncomfortable telling someone because he had hurt her in public before and even though people saw, they didn’t do anything to help her.
“Which made me think that if I told someone they might not do anything and what will happen is he would just hurt me more after telling them,” she wrote in her statement.
For three days, she wasn’t able to leave the house they shared or seek help, she wrote. She worried that if she called 911 he would hurt her again before they arrived. But on Nov. 29, when the couple went to meet her mother, she succeeded in talking to her mother privately. The victim asked her mother if she could move back home and, when Williams left them together, managed to get help for her injuries.
That day, the victim went to Inland Hospital in Waterville, where staff did a rape kit and also took photographs of the bruises of her legs, arms and buttocks.
“On some photos, you could not see any natural skin color,” Detective Benjamin Sweeney wrote in November in an investigation report.
The victim wrote in her impact statement that after she left Williams, she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and had a hard time trusting even beloved family members. But things have changed for her for the better, she wrote.
“I have been very happy alone. I feel more freedom, because I don’t have someone standing beside me wherever I go and I don’t have to worry each day about getting abused,” she wrote, adding that she’s glad about the simple fact that she is still alive.
Additionally, she doesn’t have to turn over her paychecks to him anymore, doesn’t get accused of things she hasn’t done and has enough confidence to go back to school. She said she wants to help other people who have gone through similar situations.
“I will have to say that after dealing with that hard of a past and getting to where I am now, this is probably the happiest I’ve ever been,” she wrote.
Williams pleaded guilty to all three charges of gross sexual assault, aggravated assault and domestic violence assault with prior convictions. He was sentenced by Judge Paul Matthews to 14 years in prison for the charge of gross sexual assault. He also was sentenced to five years on the charge of aggravated assault and two years on the charge of domestic violence assault, both of which will be served concurrently with his sentence on the sexual assault charge. All but five years of the overall sentence were suspended.
After he is released from prison, Williams will spend six years on probation, with terms that include not owning, possessing or using a firearm or dangerous weapon, and submitting to random searches and testing for alcohol, drugs, firearms and dangerous weapons. He also must complete counseling and treatment for sexual offender and psychological issues, have no direct or indirect contact with the woman, and be a lifetime registrant on the Maine Sex Offender Registry.
If you or someone you know needs resources or support related to sexual or relationship violence, contact the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault’s 24/7 hotline at 1-800-871-7741.