An ex-pediatrician accused of raping and sexually assaulting scores of his young patients over a decade will await a judge's decision after a one-day trial in which the graphic testimony moved women to tears and drove others from the courtroom.
Prosecutors on Tuesday presented their case against Earl Bradley to a judge in southern Delaware, just miles from his former office in Lewes. Witnesses painted the 58-year-old, gray-bearded former doctor as a predator who covertly videotaped naked patients during exams and who raped young victims or forced them to perform oral sex.
"The rapes were violent, they were brutal," state police Detective Scott Garland testified. "... The violence we were seeing was significant, and beyond anything I had ever witnessed. Nothing had prepared me for it."
Prosecutors gave Sussex County Superior Judge William Carpenter Jr. hours of graphic video evidence to review, recorded by Bradley himself, documenting the abuse. On the tapes are a total of 86 victims dating to 1998, prosecutors said. All but one were young girls with an average age of 3.
If convicted, Bradley could face life in prison for each of the 14 rape charges against him. He also is charged with assault and sexual exploitation of a child.