UTAH STATE PRISON — A serial rapist, believed to have assaulted at least 16 young girls, is seeking parole.
Randall George Noble, of Syracuse, was convicted of raping two girls, ages 13 and 14, in separate attacks. He was sentenced in 2003 to 15 years to life at the Utah State Prison.
At least 16 girls were identified as victims of Noble, with the belief that there were even more girls who never stepped forward, according to a recording of Noble's parole hearing from Feb. 20. Most of Noble's victims were girls in their teens. His sex offenses date back to when Noble was 14 years old.
Noble, now 39, cried as Utah Board of Pardons and Parole pro tem member Don Blanchard read descriptions of the assaults he committed.
"I know there’s nothing I can say to my victims or to their families to take away the pain either then or in the years since,” he said in tears. "My decisions were beyond harmful and have had, and I’m sure will continue to have, a lasting negative impact."
The mother of one of those victims read a letter from her daughter during the hearing. The daughter was 14 when she was raped.
"They say that time heals all wounds. But I have found that not to be true,” the daughter wrote.
It has been 15 years "since my innocence and sense of security was robbed for me," she wrote. But the now 29-year-old woman said she still remembers the events of what happened like they occurred yesterday.
And she said it isn't just the assault that still gives her nightmares. It's also the scrutiny she faced afterward from her classmates, the exams from doctors looking for DNA evidence, the interviews with police making her relive what happened, and the worry even today that she might have an STD. She called it all physically and emotionally draining.
"Not only does she have to be brave to stand up for what is right and tell everybody, but she also has to decide if standing up for herself is worth all the treatment that she faces,” the mother said. "It’s mentally, emotionally and physically draining on a young person’s body, mind and spirit. And those images and feelings are memories that never dissipate. No amount of counseling or therapy can erase those."
"In a sense, I am a prisoner of my own mind, memories and images,” the teen wrote.
The mother said she also still struggles with what happened.
"That day will never be gone from my memory, nor will the feelings or guilt that her father and I live with because we were not able to protect our daughter,” she said.
Both the mother and daughter urged the board to make Noble serve his entire life sentence.
The full five-member board will now make a decision whether to grant parole or hold another rehearing at some point in the future. Blanchard told Noble it was likely that the board would schedule another parole hearing, but "not right away."