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A man who is on Virginia’s sex offender registry for a similar crime in 2018 is accused of entering an assisted living facility in the Manassas area June 20 and raping an 85-year-old resident.
Benjamin Alex Dinarte, 32, of Manassas, allegedly entered the facility at 9852 Fairmont Ave. at 6:50 a.m. through an unsecured rear door and entered the room of an 85-year-old woman, Prince William County police Master Officer Renee Carr said in a news release.
He is accused of then sexually assaulting the victim before employees intervened and held on to him until police arrived, Carr said.
The victim was treated at an area hospital for non-life threatening injuries.
Following the investigation, police charged Dinarte, of the 10000 block of Tasker Drive in Manassas, with rape, abduction, object sexual penetration and burglary, Carr said.
He was held without bond at the Prince William-Manassas regional jail with a pending court date.
Dinarte has been on Virginia’s sex offender registry since his conviction in 2018 for sexually assaulting a woman at a boutique off Sudley Road.
Dinarte was found guilty of sexual battery in the April 16, 2018 assault at the Le Tache Couples Boutique at 10346 Portsmouth Road. The victim told police that he bit her, inappropriately touched her and then tried to lift up her skirt before he finally fled the scene when the victim called the police.
Detectives identified Dinarte from public tips after releasing images from the store’s security footage, police said at the time.
Dinarte was sentenced to 12 months in jail and supervised probation for the crime, according to court records online.
In September 2017, Dinarte was charged with abduction by force and sexual battery in Prince William County. Details of that case weren’t immediately available, but court records show he was sentenced to 12 months in jail with 10 months suspended on the battery charge. The abduction charge was dismissed.
