Man who brutally raped 13-year-old girl at church camp gets no prison time

A man who raped and sodomized a 13-year-old girl at a church camp is avoiding serving any prison time because he is legally blind.

NewsOK.com reports that 36-year-old Benjamin Lawrence Petty of Spencer, Oklahoma has been given 15 years of probation after he pleaded guilty to raping a young teenage girl who was attending the Falls Creek church camp in 2016.

The criminal complaint filed against Petty, who was working at the camp as a cook, claims that he "tied rope around the girl's wrists, raped her and then threatened her with physical harm if she told anyone."

The reason that Petty only got probation instead of prison is that his lawyers successfully argued that a legally blind man should not spend time in prison.

"The big thing is Mr. Petty is legally blind and the parents (of the victim) live out of state and this little girl lives out of state and didn't want to make all the travels back and forth," Murray County Assistant District Attorney David Pyle explained to NewsOK.com. "The plea was negotiated with their permission."

Under the terms of his probation, Petty is required to wear an ankle monitor for the next two years and must register as a sex offender. He is also required to receive counseling to control his sexual urges.