NEW YORK, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- A New Yorker accused of raping and holding a woman as a sex slave asserts that she initiated and consented to all their activities.
John Hopkins, 45, an audio engineer in Brooklyn, told the New York Daily News in an interview from Rikers Island, where he is being held in lieu of $350,000 bail, that his accuser advertised for sex on Craigslist.
He said he asked the 27-year-old woman, who arrived in New York from Wisconsin Feb. 4, "Why did you do this to me?"
The accuser says she responded to Hopkins' advertisement of a room in his apartment and he offered her free rent in return for cooking. She charges he gagged, blindfolded and handcuffed her to a radiator and beat and raped her for eight days, the newspaper said.
"I didn't rape her," Hopkins said. "Everything we did was role-playing. In the game of role play, the 'slave' actually has the power. … She could have left if she wanted to, but she didn't."
He faces first-degree rape and other charges.
