Professional rock climber sentenced to life imprisonment for sexual assault in Yosemite National Park

A professional rock climber was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for sexually assaulting a woman in Yosemite National Park in 2016, federal prosecutors said.

Charles Barrett, 40, was convicted of two counts of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of abusive sexual contact, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California Phillip A. Talbert.

Barrett was living and working at the national park when a woman came there for a weekend of hiking in August 2016. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Barrett sexually assaulted her three times, prosecutors said.

Three other women testified at Barrett’s trial that he also sexually abused them, prosecutors said.

Barrett was not charged with those assaults because they occurred outside the jurisdiction of federal prosecutors, but the women’s testimony was admitted at trial as relevant to the allegations against Barrett, prosecutors said.

“Barrett’s long history of sexual violence justifies the imposition of a life sentence,” Talbert said. “He used his status as a prominent climber to attack women in the climbing community, and when his victims began to speak out, Barrett responded by publicly responding with threats and intimidation. This case is a testament to the courage of the victims who reported these crimes.”

Lawyers listed as Barrett’s representatives were not immediately available for comment to NBC News Tuesday afternoon.

One of his lawyers, Timothy P. Hennessy, told the judge that a life sentence was not appropriate because Barrett suffers from mental illness, the San Luis Obispo Tribune reported. Another lawyer representing Barrett, David Torres, said he plans to appeal, the newspaper reported.

Barrett has intimidated victims in the past, prosecutors said.

In 2017, seven years after he allegedly attacked one of the women who testified against him at his trial, Barrett intentionally climbed at a climbing gym the woman attended, according to prosecutors. She told the owner about Barrett’s sexual assault to protect other women at the gym, prosecutors said.

Barrett then harassed her for years, prosecutors said. In August 2022, he was convicted of criminal threats he made earlier that year, prosecutors said.

While in custody in his most recent case, prosecutors said, Barrett made hundreds of phone calls threatening his accusers with violence and retaliation.