(SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y.) – Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced the sentencing of Edward Bell, 40, of Bellport for Aggravated Sexual Abuse in the First Degree, a Class B Felony, in connection with the sexual assault of a woman found unconscious in the backyard of a home in North Bellport in June 2019. Bell pleaded guilty in January in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead.
“No amount of punishment will ever erase the horrific trauma that this victim and her family had to endure but at the very least, they can breathe a sigh of relief now that this defendant has received a significant jail sentence,” said District Attorney Tierney. “The defendant will now have to account for his crime in prison and will be required to register as a sexual offender upon his release.”
Bell was also sentenced to five years of post-release supervision after serving his prison sentence and registering as a sex offender.
According to court filings and statements by the defendant at the guilty plea proceeding, on June 29, 2019 at about 1:30 a.m., Suffolk County Police officers found the victim lying on the ground covered in blood in the backyard of a home in North Bellport. When police canvassed the area, they located Bell walking down the street with blood on his body and clothes. Bell admitted as part of his plea that he had sexually assaulted the victim with a foreign object. As a result of the assault, the victim had to be placed in a medically-induced coma while she was treated for her injuries.
During the sentencing, the victim, through a prosecutor told the court that she suffers from anxiety and is always nervous as a result of the assault. She is a mother whose children had to witness her recover both physically and emotionally from the impact of the violent crime.
Assistant District Attorney Dena Rizopoulos of the Major Crime Bureau prosecuted the case.