Man gets 20 years in Bates College rape

AUBURN – A Sabattus man convicted of raping a Bates College student in 2002 was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison after a jury decided the crime did not meet the standard for being among the “most heinous.”

Superior Court Justice Thomas Delahanty II sentenced Christian Averill, 25, to the maximum sentence allowed.

Averill was convicted in 2003 of sexually assaulting the woman in an academic building where she was studying for finals. He was sentenced to 34 years in prison, with 10 years suspended.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court overturned the sentence last year, saying the judge could not deviate from sentencing standards to impose a higher sentence without a jury’s finding that the crime was especially heinous.

An Androscoggin County Superior Court jury decided Wednesday that Averill’s crime did not merit a harsher sentence reserved only for the most heinous offenses. The decision meant that Averill could be sentenced to a maximum of 20 years.