A Michigan man suspected of raping at least six women may have had hundreds of victims, and prosecutors are turning to 500 videotapes found in the man’s home for answers.
Gilbert Benny Conway, 60, of Flint, was arrested in July on charges that he raped six women since 2009. According to MLive.com, Conway faces 86 counts including criminal sexual conduct, kidnapping, extortion, gross indecency and other crimes.
The most recent alleged assault took place on July 4, the news agency reported.
Police investigators searching Conway’s home following his arrest found more than 500 video cassettes that held scenes of rape, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said.
"He had the camera set up while he's raping his victims," Leyton told MLive. "We think there's a whole lot more victims out there. We want to try to identify them and seek additional charges because we want to get justice for these victims."
Leyton on Monday requested $20,000 from the Genesee County Board of Commissioners to fund the transfer of the videos from the Hi8 cassette format to DVD. In his written request for the funds, he wrote that the Hi8 format is "susceptible to video deterioration and is extremely cumbersome for our investigators to review," MLive reported.
“The need is immediate, urgent and critical to the investigation and our efforts to prosecute the suspect,” Leyton wrote.
The board approved the funds. Leyton’s investigators, Flint police detectives and FBI agents will review the recordings once the transfer is complete.
Leyton told ABC12 that each videotape runs eight hours.
"We believe from looking at some of the Hi8 tapes that there are additional victims being sexually assaulted while being videotaped, and we want to be able to look at those videotapes and hopefully identify these additional victims," Leyton told the news station.
Conway's attorney, Archie Hayman, told NBC News that he has not yet seen any of the videotapes.
"As far as I know, Mr. Conway appears to be have been a hard-working individual with years of employment and a loving family man," Hayman said.
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