ORLANDO, Fla. – A convicted serial rapist is now facing charges in 15 more sex crime cases that occurred decades ago, according to the Orlando Police Department.
George Girtman was nicknamed the “Malibu Rapist” after a string of sexual batteries in the 1980s and 1990s in the Malibu Homes subdivision in Orlando. He’s currently serving a life sentence in connection with those crimes.
[TRENDING: Red-headed reptiles roam Fla. | Boy caught in roll-up gate dies | Aiden Fucci’s mom arrested in murder case]
On Monday, police announced that they re-examined more than two dozen sexual battery and attempted sexual battery investigations and made the decision to close out 26 of them and file charges against Girtman in 15 of them.
The victims were all females, ages 6 years old to over 40. Eleven of the victims died before their attacker could be identified, according to Orlando police Special Victims Unit Detective Graham Cage.
Asked why police would file charges against a man who will spend the rest of his life behind bars, Cage said it’s about giving the surviving victims a voice.
“Filing these charges gives these victims the opportunity to receive justice, to have their voices heard, where they can say in their own words how these violent crimes impacted them for the rest of their lives. Even though 30-plus years have passed, (Girtman) will be held accountable for his actions, and for terrorizing a part of our community,” Cage said.
Assistant State Attorney Jenny Rossman, chief of the Sex Crimes Unit at the state attorney’s office in Osceola and Orange counties, will oversee the state’s case against Girtman.
”It will be our hope that, ultimately, these victims will have the opportunity to have their voices heard in court, whatever medium that is,” said Rossman, adding it’s possible that the victims could be able to speak directly to Girtman in court, similar to what convicted sex offender Larry Nassar’s victims were able to do to in Michigan.
State lawmakers recently passed a Florida law called the “DNA Evidence Collected in Sexual Offense Investigations” that would require the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to create and maintain a statewide database for tracking rape kits. The law became known as the “Gail Act,” named after Gail Gardner, an Orlando woman who was among the recently identified Malibu rapist’s victims.
“This serial rapist, many more, [Gail Act] had their DNA matched up with all those who he had caused this grief of rape,” Sen. Linda Stewart said.
Gardner waited more than 30 years for her rapist to be identified because her sexual assault kit went untested for decades. She told CBS 12 her kit was tested in 2019 after she requested the records from her case from Orlando police.
“I am a survivor and thriver,” Gardner said Tuesday. “I survived a horrific crime, and I’ve thrived because I moved forward in my life to live and to advocate for those who are having difficulty moving forward and there’s some of us who have been emotionally incarcerated, from the trauma in the grips that we’ve held, and can leave and find ourselves left in a stuck position, we are not stuck in a line between this incident, we are moving forward and toward wholeness.”
The law also requires FDLE to ensure victims are notified regarding the status of their rape kits.
“It doesn’t matter if he is serving 20 years, 30 years. Whoever he has raped, he needs to go to court and have a sentence for that person, one survivor, two survivors, however many there are as closure,” Stewart said.