a veteran Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer who abused his position to drug and sexually assault more than two dozen women during deployments around the world was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in federal prison.
The sentence was handed down to Brian Jeffrey Raymond, 48, of La Mesa, California, following an emotional hearing in which his victims said they were deceived by a man they said was kind, educated and part of an agency “whose job is to protect the world from evil.”
“It’s safe to say he is a sexual predator,” US Senior Judge Colleen Kolar-Kotelly said before handing down the full sentence sought by prosecutors. “You’ll get some time to think about that.”
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This photo provided by the FBI on October 25, 2023 shows former CIA officer Brian Jeffrey Raymond. (FBI via AP)
In addition to the prison sentence, Raymond has been ordered to pay $260,000 in restitution to his victims. Fox News Digital has contacted the CIA.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves said Raymond’s sentence “ensures that he will be labeled a sex offender for life, and will spend a large portion of the rest of his life behind bars.”
These attacks took place in 2006. Mexico, Peru Other countries followed the same pattern, prosecutors said.
Raymond would lure women he met on Tinder and other dating apps to his government-leased apartment in Mexico City, drug them and serve them alcohol and snacks. After they passed out, he would assault them and take photos of their naked corpses. He would sometimes pry open their eyelids and put his fingers in their mouths, prosecutors said.
When Raymond realized he was under investigation, he tried to erase the photos and videos of those women to cover up his mistake.
About a dozen of Raymond’s victims, who were identified in court only by numbers, described how he changed their lives. Some said they only realized what had happened to them when the FBI showed them photos of Raymond being attacked In a state of unconsciousness.
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Brian Jeffery Raymond was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
“My body looks like a corpse lying on the bed,” one victim said of the photos. “Now I have nightmares about seeing myself dead.”
Raymond maintained a collection of over 500 images, some of which showed him straddling and touching his nude, unconscious victims.
One of the women present in court said, “I hope he has to suffer the consequences of his actions for the rest of his life.”
In a statement, the former detective told the judge he had spent countless hours thinking about his “heralded downfall.”
“This betrays everything I stand for and I know no apology will ever be enough,” he said. “I have no words to describe how sorry I am. This is not who I am, yet I have become that.”
Prosecutors have not revealed a full list of countries where the attacks took place, but they have described Raymond as a serial offender.
The CIA seal is displayed next to the US flag at its headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Senior CIA officer Brian Jeffrey Raymond was convicted of sexually abusing more than two dozen women. (AP Photo/Carolyn Castor)
Defense lawyers asked the judge for leniency, citing Raymond’s “para-military” work with the CIA in the years leading up to the incident. September 11 attacksHis lawyers said the job also became a breeding ground for emotional callousness and “objectifying other people,” which led him to prey on women for years. They added that his work led him down a “dark path.”
He eventually pleaded guilty to 25 counts, including sexual abuse, coercion and transportation of obscene material.
“While he worked tirelessly at his government job, he ignored his own need for help, and over time he began to isolate himself, disconnecting himself from human emotion, and becoming emotionally numb,” defense attorney Howard Katzoff wrote in a court filing.
Raymond’s sentencing comes amid another public relations crisis for the spy agency.
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A trainee officer is set to go on trial next month who is accused of attacking a woman with a scarf on a stairwell at the agency’s Langley, Virginia headquarters. That case prompted nearly two dozen women to come before authorities and Congress to describe their experiences of sexual harassment, unwanted touching and the CIA’s efforts to silence them.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
