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Connecticut man sentenced to a year in prison for raping his dead girlfriend - Representational image PROOffice of Public Affairs/ Flickr Commons

A Connecticut man was sentenced to a year in prison for raping his dead girlfriend. The court heard that the man had told police he raped her thinking it would wake her up.

Aaron Graser pleaded guilty to fourth-degree sexual assault and violation of probation on Tuesday (5 December) after the prosecutor told the Superior Court in Danielson that the man "had sex with a woman who had expired". However, the 39-year-old was spared from signing the state's sex offender registry after the judge found "registration is not required for public safety based upon the facts in this case".

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The Hartford Courant reported that the incident dates back to January when the victim died due to drug overdose. Toxicology reports revealed high levels of fentanyl, heroin and another synthetic drugs in her body.

When Graser found his girlfriend unresponsive, he tried to wake her up but after all his attempts failed, he laid the victim down on the bed and he rubbed her sternum.

"Aaron stated he listened to see if the victim was breathing and he heard gurgling. Aaron stated he knew the victim hated having sex with him so he figured that the victim might wake up if he had sex with her," the warrant for his arrest stated.

He told detectives at the time that he tied his girlfriend's wrists and ankles to bed posts "because it was a fetish of his" and raped her. After finishing the act, he called his neighbour, a former paramedic, who later told police that she believed the woman had been dead for a couple of hours.

Officers also found heroin and needles at the scene of the woman's death and an autopsy found that she was dead when Graser had sex with her.

According to the man's arrest warrant, a medical examiner told police that there were no bruises under the woman's skin because she was dead during the assault. The examiner said no bruises meant no blood was flowing at the time and added that as per Graser's account that the victim was gurgling, that could have been the sound of gases escaping her body.

Recently, a Liverpool man was jailed for life for hammering his girlfriend to death and then raping her dead body. The man, Anthony Showers, had sex with the bloodstained body of Jade Hales before he killed her disabled mother Karen and their pet dog Tyson.