Prosser child molester sent to prison for life after three trials

Five years after a young girl revealed that she had been tied up repeatedly and treated like a prisoner, her molester was sentenced to prison for life.

Richard E. Cain, 50, must serve the minimum term of eight years and two months before a state board will decide if he is ready for release or should remain locked up.

The Indeterminate Sentence Review Board will review Cain’s acceptance of the crime, his participation in prison programs and the risk to community safety.

Cain on Tuesday filed a notice of appeal.

He was convicted March 14 by a Benton County Superior Court jury of first-degree child molestation.

That was the Prosser man’s third trial.

His first one ended in a hung jury. And in late 2014, Judge Bruce Spanner vacated the guilty verdicts of first-degree child rape and first-degree child molestation from the second trial after Cain argued that his constitutional right to testify was violated because his lawyer refused to put him on the stand.

The most recent jury acquitted Cain of the child rape charge.

Cain first appeared in court in June 2011 on the case after the preteen girl told her mother she’d been sexually assaulted for several years. The molestation reportedly ended in March 2010.

In an interview with Benton County sheriff’s investigators, the girl said Cain would use a belt from a robe to tie her up, put a pillow over her head and say to her, “You are my prisoner,” court documents said.

An adult woman who had been in an consensual relationship with Cain told prosecutors he had used similar sexual practices including bondage, documents said.

Deputy Prosecutor Anita Petra told the Herald “this case has been a procedural nightmare and the wheels of justice were slow” for the victim and her family, but justice has been served with Cain’s conviction and sentence.

This story was originally published May 11, 2016 at 3:05 PM with the headline "Prosser child molester sent to prison for life after three trials."