Elderly Man Accused Of Repeatedly Raping Minor Student While Victim Lived Under His Partner's Care

An 81-year-old artist in India was arrested for allegedly raping a minor student for seven years while the girl was living under the care of his live-in partner, reports said.

The suspect, identified as Maurice Ryder from Noida, a city in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh, was arrested on charges of rape, voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation for sexually assaulting a 17-year-old unidentified victim for the past seven years.

Ryder is accused of digital rape where the victim was forcefully penetrated using fingers and toes, The Times of India reported.

Ryder who works as an artist has an office in a city in Himachal Pradesh, around 230 miles away from his residence. A worker from Ryder's office sent his 10-year-old daughter to live with Ryder's live-in partner so that she could get an education and the girl was allegedly exploited since then, police said.

The incident came to light after the teen girl shared her ordeal with Ryder's live-in partner who reported it to the police. "The girl lives here with her guardian, who has been a friend of the accused for around 20 years now. The guardian had lodged the complaint in the case," a senior investigating officer said, as reported by NDTV.

"The girl was initially scared...in the past one month, she started recording the suspect’s sexual advances, mostly as audio files. She collected sizable evidence and shared her plight with a woman, who lived with the suspect who then lodged a complaint," Ranvijay Singh, a senior investigating officer, told The Times of India.

Ryder was produced before the court and was remanded in custody for 14 days.

In India, digital rape was considered molestation until 2013 when a new law passed by the government brought all forms of forced penetration under the ambit of the anti-rape law.

A 13-year-old rape victim in India was allegedly sexually assaulted by a cop earlier this month when she went to the police station to complain about her perpetrators. The teen from Lalitpur, a city in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh faced the ordeal when she approached police complaining about four suspects who kidnapped her and sexually abused her for three days.