Georgia Man Ricardo Arturo Cole Charged With Raping Son’s Girlfriend, Tells Police He Was Sleepwalking

Fifty-four-year-old Ricardo Arturo Cole of Lawrenceville, Georgia, has been arrested on charges that he tried to rape his son’s girlfriend. When he was arrested on Wednesday, he told police officers that he was sleepwalking when the alleged attempted rape happened. The police report indicates he said the same thing to his son’s girlfriend at the time.

The alleged attack happened on April 8 while Cole’s accuser was sleeping in his home that he shares with his son, her boyfriend at the time. She stated that about 1 a.m. she felt someone crawl into bed behind her. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that she assumed it was her boyfriend. The person proceeded to roll down her pants and make an attempt at intercourse, but no penetration occurred. At this point, she rolled over and came face-to-face with Ricardo Cole. She pushed him away and asked him what he was doing. He responded with an apology and explained that he had been sleepwalking before leaving the room.

Cole’s accuser said that she considered reporting the incident when it happened, but feared that her boyfriend would become angry if she did. On May 11, she filed a report with police and said that she had not contact with either Ricardo Arturo Cole or his son since the alleged attempted rape. Cole is being held without bond at the Gwinnett County Jail.

Ricardo Arturo Cole Sr. pulled down the victim's pants and attempted intercourse while she slept.https://t.co/L5a0nhBwmq

— BET Music (@BETMusic) August 18, 2018

WebMD reports that a Stanford study shows that up to 2 percent of the population has become violent while sleeping and about 1 percent have had sex while asleep. Studies show that there may be a neurochemical disorder in the brains of people who have sex while they are sleeping, as many of them have other sleep disorders, like sleep apnea, bedwetting, sleepwalking, REM behavior disorders, and seizures.

Earlier this month, a 24-year-old engineer from Loughborough, Leicestershire, also claimed that he was asleep during a rape for which he was eventually found guilty. Metro reported that Karl Gammon had been out with the victim and a friend of hers before they all passed out drunk on his double bed. The victim’s friend said she awoke to the sight of Gammon on top of her friend, “thrusting” in a sexual way. She pushed him and yelled at him to “get off her,” and he complied then immediately fell asleep. Prosecutors said that he took the victim’s friend home the next morning, but then returned home to rape her friend while she slept. Gammon testified that he had no recollection of the rape and claimed that he must have been asleep when it happened.