WARNING: This story contains graphic details. Discretion is advised.
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Authorities say a Florida woman was held captive by her ex-boyfriend for five days and repeatedly beaten and raped before she was able to escape, WESH reports.
According to an affidavit, the woman showed up at a Brevard County home naked and covered in bruises. She told police she was held captive for five days and was brutally beaten and raped.
She suffered two broken ribs, according to the report.
The victim told investigators she knew the man, Charles Tanner, 51, for about five years, and that the two had been in a relationship, which ended about a month ago.
Before the kidnaping, he had promised her “all the drugs she wanted,” and she went to his home and they engaged in consensual sex, the report said.
The woman said Tanner became angry after she revealed she was dating a Black man. She claims he used a racial slur and kicked her in the head.
The woman said she was starved, beaten and brutally raped over the next five days. She claims Tanner took photos of himself assaulting her while she was unconscious and sent them to her friends. He repeatedly threatened to kill her throughout the ordeal, the woman said, and once held a butcher knife to her cheek and threatened to slash it, according to the report.
Authorities said she was able to escape his home while he was asleep.
Tanner was arrested on charges of sexual battery, aggravated battery, felony battery, false imprisonment, aggravated assault and sexual cyberharassment.
Authorities say he was arrested in 2013 following a similar incident, when another woman was seen running naked from his home, and claimed she had been sexually assaulted.
