Sexual Assault Survivor Gets Day in Court 27 Years After Alleged Assault

Lina Portman4 weeks ago

0 1 minute read

SPARTANBURG, SC (FOX Carolina) – The trial of a man accused of sexual assault in 1997 has begun in Spartanburg County.

FOX Carolina News was the only station at the Spartanburg County Courthouse as the trial of alleged serial rapist Gregory Frye began.

At the time of his arrest in 2019, investigators said Frye's DNA linked him to a dozen sexual assaults across the state.

This week's trial focuses on a case from April 1997. The state said Frye broke into a Spartanburg woman's apartment and assaulted her. He is accused of this assault, this kidnapping and this burglary.

In the state's opening statements, they said Frye lived in the apartment where and when the assault occurred. Although investigators were able to collect a sperm sample from the assault survivor, attorney Barry Barnette said they were unable to link him to Frye until 2019 using genealogy mapping.

The sexual assault survivor, who FOX Carolina News has not named, said her attacker broke into her Spartanburg apartment around 4 a.m. on April 4, 1997.

From the stand, she told the jury that she had a good look at the man as he crouched at the foot of his bed before the assault began.

STATEMENT: “Did you see him leave the apartment? »

SURVIVOR: “Yes, I saw his back when he walked towards the door. »

STATEMENT: “After he left the apartment, what did you do? »

SURVIVOR: “I grabbed a golf club and stood there, shaking, really scared. »

The survivor said she worked with a sketch artist to create a composite, but the defense pushed back under cross-examination, pointing out that not all of the survivor's descriptions of her attacker featured Frye's most identifiable characteristic: he only has one hand.

DEFENSE: “Do you believe that if you had seen the person you described in your room on that day of April 4, if you had seen him in your room, if you had seen him the next day, you would have did you recognize it?

SURVIVOR: “I don’t know.”

Court resumes at 9:30 a.m.