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SoCal Man Allegedly Raped Woman He Met Using Christian Mingle Dating Site
A Del Mar man is accused of raping a woman he met using the dating website ChristianMingle.com, and now authorities are working to determine if he has other victims.Sean Patrick Banks, 37, was arrested earlier this week on suspicion of two sex-assault charges and a count of residential burglary, according to La Mesa Patch. He pleased not guilty and posted bail, and is now awaiting his next court appearance.
Banks is accused of using the Christian Mingle site under the handle "Rarity" to get to know a woman. He then allegedly went to her house and raped her, according to La Mesa Lt. Matt Nicholass. Banks has also used the names “Rylan Butterwood” and “Rylan Harbough,” on the same site, leading investigators to believe there may have been other women he assaulted or raped.
Christian Mingle is owned by Spark Networks, a Beverly Hills-based company. A rep for Spark says the work diligently to ensure member safety, and vet all people signing up for profiles:
“In addition to having profile review experts manually review all profile text and photos submitted by members, we have also developed several proprietary automated tools to help identify questionable profiles and to eliminate fraudulent activity in our communities.”
Spark Networks is not, however, a Christian organization, but rather a large operator of over 25 different dating sites, including JDate and blacksingles.com, Patch explains. Other Christian dating sites have challenged Christian Mingle's legitimacy as a faith-based dating site based on its ownership.
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