Professional rock climber gets life for series of sexual assaults at Yosemite

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (TCD) -- A 40-year-old professional rock climber will spend the rest of his life behind bars for sexually abusing a woman multiple times during a weekend in 2016 at Yosemite National Park.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California announced Charles Barrett's sentence on June 4. A federal jury convicted him in February of two counts of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of abusive sexual contact.

In August 2016, the female victim reportedly traveled to Yosemite to hike for a weekend. Barrett lived in and worked for a business at the park, and prosecutors said he sexually assaulted the victim three times.

Three other women testified in court, claiming Barrett also sexually assaulted them. The defendant wasn't charged in the separate allegations because they occurred outside federal jurisdiction, but the attorney's office said the women's testimonies were relevant to the case.

In 2017, Barrett "purposely climbed at a rock climbing gym" where one of his victims went after he had sexually assaulted her seven years prior, according to the attorney's office. The victim told the gym owner about the assault, and prosecutors said "Barrett responded by harassing and threatening her for several years." Barrett made criminal threats in January 2022, for which he was convicted in August 2022.

According to the attorney's office, while he was in custody, Barrett made multiple phone calls where "he showed no remorse or regret" and "threatened to use violence and vindictive lawsuits against the victims, claiming that they designed a conspiracy to ruin his life."

U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert said Barrett "used his status as a prominent climber to assault women in the rock climbing community, and when his victims began to tell, Barrett responded by lashing out publicly with threats and intimidation."

MORE: