Judge says jail time ‘would be inappropriate’ for man who raped four teenage girls.

A 20-year-old New York man who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting four teenage girls will avoid prison after the judge on the case said a prison sentence “would be inappropriate,” The Washington Post reports.

Christopher Belter, a teenager himself then, reportedly assaulted three then-16-year-olds and one 15-year-old during parties at his parents’ home between February 2017 and August 2018.

He pleaded guilty to felony charges including third-degree rape and attempted first-degree sexual abuse, as well as two misdemeanor charges of second-degree sexual abuse in 2019, according to The Post.

However, Niagara County Court Judge Matthew Murphy III concluded that jail time “would be inappropriate,” for Belter and sentenced him to eight years of probation and ordered him to register as a sex offender instead.

“I’m not ashamed to say that I actually prayed over what is the appropriate sentence in this case because there was great pain,” Murphy said, according to The Post. “There was great harm. There were multiple crimes committed in the case. It seems to me that a sentence that involves incarceration or partial incarceration isn’t appropriate, so I am going to sentence you to probation.”

Murphy told Belter that the probationary sentence would be “like a sword hanging over your head for the next eight years.” 

Steven Cohen, the attorney for one of the victims does not see it that way.

“Justice was not done here today,” Cohen said. “He is privileged, he comes from money, he is white. He was sentenced as an adult, appropriately. For an adult to get away with these crimes is unjust.”

Cohen said the judge’s ruling made his client sick, literally, and she went to throw up in the bathroom.

This is not the first time Belter was granted probation. Sara Sheldon a now-retired judge placed him on two years interim probation in 2019 to give him a chance to earn youthful offender status. Sheldon said at the time that Belter would find it difficult to comply with the restrictions, and she was right.

He admitted that he violated the terms of his probation by installing software on his personal computer to bypass a content block that prevented him from watching porn, according to Buffalo News. He also told his probation officer that he had been watching porn since he was 7 years old and was “recently treated with medication to lessen his libido.”

Murphy had previously decided that Belter would not be granted youthful offender status, which would have limited his sentence to four years and prevented him from having to register as a sex offender.

After the trial, Belter’s attorney, Barry Covert said, “[Belter] is tremendously remorseful for what he’s done.”  

Belter’s mother, stepfather, and a family friend, have all pleaded not guilty to related charges of child endangerment and unlawfully dealing with a child. Police say they helped to groom the victims for sexual assault by providing them with alcohol and marijuana.