A parole board Thursday rejected a rapist’s bid to be released from prison, sending the former jet-set fugitive back to prison until 2008.
Alex Kelly, who was charged in 1986 with raping two teenagers while he was a high-school wrestling standout, was visibly angry after the ruling and demanded of the three-member board, “Why did we come here?”
Board members said they were moved by the pleas of Kelly’s two victims, Adrienne Bak and Hillary Buchanan, who sat together and fought back tears as they described Kelly’s crimes.
“For 19 years, Adrienne and I have been trying to get justice for the brutal rapes this man committed against us,” Buchanan said. “He left such an indelible mark on my soul.”
Kelly, now 37, has spent eight years in prison, which his victims noted was less time than he lived in Europe as a fugitive.
“I wish there was some way I could explain how sorry I am for what I have done,” Kelly told the board. “I take full responsibility for the things I have done. I have caused a lot of pain to a lot of people and I am sorry for that.”
The board peppered Kelly with questions about his crimes, his time in Europe and what he has been doing in prison.
When asked why he raped his victims, Kelly said he had been under the belief that the world owed him something.
“I know I’m not the center of the world today,” he said.
Just before his trial was to begin in 1987, Kelly fled the country. He surrendered in Switzerland in 1995. While in Europe, he spent time skiing, hang gliding and mountain climbing using money authorities say his wealthy parents sent him.
The two women he raped said that while Kelly was living the high life, they were spending their days in fear that he would come back and kill them.
“Who knows how many there were before us, I wonder how many there will be if you release him,” Buchanan said.
