25 years to life for child rapist

STAFF report

WARREN — A former city man pleaded guilty Thursday to raping and molesting five girls between age 4 and 10 between December 2008 and March 9, 2009, and received a 25 years-to-life prison sentence.

Guy McFarland, 36, was arrested March 9 when the father of one of the girls arrived at his house in Leavittsburg to find McFarland sexually assaulting his 5-year-old daughter.

McFarland was baby-sitting the girl at the time of that assault.

Lt. Don Bishop of the Warren Township Police Department said McFarland was staying with the family and watching the girl while her father left to work on another house.

The father returned home unexpectedly, Bishop said.

McFarland’s indictment states he raped the youngest child and the one next to her in age four times, another child twice and the oldest child five times.

His indictment also states he committed gross sexual imposition — meaning improper sexual contact — against each of the girls at least once.

The girls’ mother prepared a statement that Miriam Fife, Trumbull County victim-witness advocate, read in court.

“It physically makes us sick to hear his name,” she said. “Some of the children still have nightmares. They wake up screaming, ‘The bad man is coming to get me,’ and some of the children still feel unsafe in public.

“We have to assure them over and over and comfort them that they are safe. We are struggling financially because we take the girls to counseling twice a month. Some are still not talking about what happened. They still get emotionally upset whenever asked about this person,” she wrote.

The woman said she and her husband “will be forever scarred because we trusted this person with our kids.”

She said she believed McFarland should go to prison without any chance for parole “for the anguish he has put our family through.”

In all, McFarland was convicted of 14 rapes and six counts of gross sexual imposition.

Each rape count carried a possible life prison sentence.

Each charge of gross-sexual imposition carried a penalty of up to five years in prison.