Star Rock Climber Who Allegedly Assaulted Women Climbers For Years Receives Life Sentence

A once-celebrated rock climber was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for repeatedly raping a woman hiker in Yosemite National Park, following years of allegations of sexual assault, violent attacks, threats and harassment of other women in the rock-climbing community, prosecutors said .

Charles “Charlie” Barrett, 40, was convicted of two counts of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of abusive sexual contact against the woman, identified in court documents as “K.G.,” for the August 2016 rapes in Yosemite.

Three other women were also allowed to testify in the trial about his alleged attacks on them, which prosecutors said occurred from 2008 through 2016. He was not charged in those cases, which fell outside of federal jurisdiction, but prosecutors said they demonstrated a pattern of predatory behavior and intimidation.

K.G. told authorities that she met Barrett at Yosemite, where she went swimming with him and a group of climbing friends, according to court documents viewed by HuffPost. That night, he lured her to a remote area, where he pushed her to the ground, strangled her until she couldn’t breathe, and “violently raped her,” according to court documents. He assaulted her two more times over the weekend, hurting her so badly that she told investigators she was “wailing” from the pain.

She didn’t leave early that weekend because she was terrified that he would kill her, she said.

A month after the assaults, Barrett texted her, saying, “Can we be friends? I miss you.” She responded, “I find it hard to be friends with guys who rape me,” according to the documents.

Before and after she reported the assaults in 2020, Barrett harassed and stalked her, contacting her ex-boyfriend, a potential employer and others