Inside Sarah Lawrence sex cult as leader Larry Ray jailed for 60 years over sex trafficking ring at

March 2024 · 3 minute read

A MAN who started a sex cult in his daughter's college dormitory has been sentenced to 60 years in prison.

Lawrence "Larry" Ray, 63, the leader of the Sarah Lawrence sex cult, learned his fate in a New York courtroom on Friday.

In 2010, Ray moved into his daughter Talia's dorm at Sarah Lawrence College, a liberal arts school in Bronxville, New York.

He had just been released from prison.

There, Ray reportedly gained the trust of Talia and some of her roommates.

Eventually, he ended up controlling every aspect of their lives for a decade.

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Ray reportedly won the students over by presenting himself as a psychologist or wise spiritual advisor.

He moved the cult to a Manhattan apartment in 2011 and eventually persuaded even more young adults to participate.

Ray reportedly forced his cult members to do everything from household chores to performing sex acts on each other.

He maintained control in part through blackmail.

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Ray would interrogate the students until they broke and falsely confessed to crimes and other non-existent offenses.

Many of the victims reportedly paid Ray thousands of dollars for their alleged transgressions.

In 2020, Ray was charged with more than a dozen crimes including extortion, sex trafficking, money laundering, and forced labor.

He was convicted on 15 of those charges last April.

'PROFOUNDLY VIOLATED'

Some of Ray's victims read statements ahead of his sentencing on Friday, The Daily Beast reports.

“His evil withered us,” Claudia Drury, a sex trafficking victim, said in a statement.

“I feel profoundly violated in a way that I cannot fully communicate.”

Another victim, Santos Rosario, was just 19 when he met Ray and claimed he was "robbed" of a decade of his life.

“I was 19 years old and a sophomore in college. I was happy. Then I met Larry Ray,” Rosario told the court.

“The next decade was misery. My family was ripped apart.”

In a sentencing guidelines memo, prosecutors said Ray "sought to convince his victims that they were worthless, undeserving of love, and irredeemable, and until his arrest in this case, he was succeeding."

“In order to maintain his control and the lifestyle it ensured, he obstructed justice and threatened his victims with retaliation.

"He has shown no remorse, accepted no responsibility, and impeded the prosecution of this case, including by disrupting the trial and prolonging the trauma to his victims.”

'THEY ARE GONE'

After the victims spoke, Ray also had the chance to do so.

He didn't apologize or reference his crimes or the victims.

Instead, Ray told Judge Lewis J. Liman that he deserves sympathy because of the loss of three of his family members while he has been jailed.

“I lost my father, my stepfather, and my stepmother all in one week. They are gone,” Ray said.

“I didn't get to say goodbye.”

He also used his two-minute speech to complain about health issues and the poor medical care he's received in prison.

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But Judge Lewis J. Liman questioned the ailments plaguing Ray and didn't offer the desired sympathy.

Ray then received his 60-year sentence.

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