Crime & Safety

Husband Raped Me and Tried to Send Me to Macedonia, Wife Says

According to police, a WCU student, with the aid of his father, attempted to force his wife on a flight to Macedonia.

Strange new details emerged in the case of a West Chester University student charged with raping and kidnapping his Macedonian wife, The Reporter is reporting.

Lirim “Lenny” Rufati, 24, faces charges of rape, kidnapping, sexual assault and other offenses relating to an alleged abduction, and his wife’s subsequent claims that he had been regularly sexually abusing her.

According to the victim’s testimony, delivered in district court on Feb. 19 with the help of an interpreter, she and Rufati had an arranged marriage in Macedonia in April 2011, then moved to the area, where Rufati enrolled at West Chester University.

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After years of what she characterized as physical and sexual abuse, the woman said the couple had a heated dispute on Jan. 2 that ended only when a West Goshen police officer came to the scene and ultimately drove her to a hotel where she could safely spend the night. The next morning though, her husband called her and asked if he could come over and talk.

Once at the hotel, the victim said that Rufati took her back to their apartment, then he and his father took her, against her will, to JFK airport in New York, where they tried to force her on a flight back to Macedonia.

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The woman said she was saved only when she sent a text message to a friend alerting her to the situation. The friend apparently contacted police, who met the woman in customs and stopped her from boarding the flight.

Rufati remains free on bail. Read the, bizarre, full story here.


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