Unregistered Sex Offender Accused Of Raping Tulsa Woman

A 26-year-old Tulsa man is in jail on a $260,000 bond, accused of raping, duct taping, beating, biting and choking a woman.

The victim said it was not a stranger attack—the two knew each other and had hung out before.

Sex crimes detectives say this type of acquaintance rape is by far the most common, but terribly under-reported.

Even though it happened last Saturday, the victim, Kaitlin, still has a black eye and visible bruises from the attack and from fighting back.

Kaitlin said she keeps reassuring her family and friends that she's okay, and she even sounds a little casual when talking about the rape, but the physical evidence suggests she was in the fight for her life last weekend.

"Then he put my hands above my head and duct taped my hands, like this, duct taped me around my mouth," Kaitlin said, demonstrating how the attack happened.

8/28/2012 Related Story: Sex Offender Arrested In Connection With Tulsa Sexual Assault

She said she and Christopher Cardwell knew each other and had hung out together alone and with friends, so she thought nothing when he asked her to go out with him last Friday night.

"He doesn't seem like a guy you would expect that from," Kaitlin said.

She said he wanted to show her where he works, repairing semi trucks. Once there, she said he knocked her to the ground, hit her and choked her, before raping her more than once.

"I thought I was going to die," Kaitlin said. "You think about your family and stuff."

Pictures taken afterward show the bruises on her arms and legs.

The police report states, in addition to the bruising, Kaitlin had strangulation marks and bites on her, too.

Kaitlin said, after the assault, Cardwell gave her a sob story and asked her not to call police.

"He told me he found out three months ago he was a father and his dad was in prison for the same thing, and that he can't go back to prison. Apparently, in Texas, he raped a nine-year-old when he was 15," Kaitlin said.

She said she told him whatever she had to, to get him to take her back home, and eventually he did.

Kaitlin said she was, at first, reluctant to call police, but then realized this wasn't her fault, and he needed to be stopped from doing this again, so she did.

"You have to," Kaitlin said. "If you don't, nobody'll get justice from it. You have to."

Records show Cardwell has convictions in Oklahoma and Payne counties.

He was booked last weekend into a Tulsa jail for rape, kidnapping and failure to register as a sex offender in Oklahoma.

Police said they have a lot of evidence in this case.

Kaitlin had a sexual assault exam, where they collected DNA samples, and they even found the duct tape right where she said it would be, and it still had her hair stuck to it where it was wrapped around her head.

Detectives said that if there are additional victims out there, now is the time to come forward.