Police: Woman raped in laundromat

The Statesboro Police Department reports that a man facing multiple charges in the alleged rape of a stranger at knifepoint in a laundromat last Wednesday turned himself in to the Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office on Monday.

Paul Houston, 50, of Dodd Circle in Statesboro, was booked into the Bulloch County Jail after 11 a.m. Monday. He is charged with rape, aggravated assault, kidnapping and possession of a firearm or knife during the commission of a crime. Statesboro police are prosecuting Houston on two counts, according to the police news release.

But there was one victim, an adult female, police said. A sexual assault at the laundromat, called Coin Laundry, was reported at about 2:20 a.m. on June 7, according to the news release issued Monday by SPD Information Specialist Madison Bridges. Coin Laundry is located on Northside Drive West.

According to Bridges and Police Chief Mike Broadhead, the victim did not know his attacker.

“It was an attack by a stranger,” Bridges said. “It wasn’t a date rape. They didn’t meet or know each other or anything.”

The kidnapping charges stem from the attacker forcing the victim “at knifepoint” to walk out of the laundromat to another location on the property where he raped her, Bridges said.

“He moved her twice throughout the attack and targeted her twice, and that is the basis for the two charges,” Broadhead explained.

The police also specified the charge of grievous bodily harm as grievous bodily harm with a knife.

The victim was taken to East Georgia Regional Medical Center for evaluation and treatment, Bridges reported.

Through an investigation by the SPD’s Criminal Investigations Bureau, Houston was identified as the prime suspect and investigators obtained arrest warrants for him. The Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office also assisted in the investigation, Statesboro police said.

When asked about the approximate age of the victim, Broadhead would only say she was an adult female. The newspaper had not received the original incident report and only became aware of the crime through Monday’s arrest notice, which said Houston turned herself in and was arrested without further incident.

“We had a warrant out for his arrest and we had put out the word on the street that we were looking for him. That got through to him and he turned himself in,” Broadhead said. “So that’s something we can briefly share with the public: It was really your help that convinced him to turn himself in.”

Herald reporter Al Hackle can be reached at (912) 489-9458.