Jury deliberations resume in ChristianMingle, Match.com rape case

A San Diego County jury is set to resume deliberations Monday in the case of a Del Mar man accused of raping two women he met through the Internet dating sites ChristianMingle and Match.com.

Sean Banks, 38, is accused of rape, rape on an unconscious person, and rape using a foreign object.

A computer technician and former Navy officer, Banks used a pseudonym when meeting the women online, according to trial testimony.

A woman testified that she met Banks on ChristianMingle because she “believed in God, scripture, going to church, reading the Bible and I wanted someone who had those same interests.”

For their first date in October 2012, she testified, she invited Banks to her apartment in La Mesa to watch a movie.

He quickly began making physical advances, she said.

“I didn’t believe that was happening and I said at the top of my lungs” for him to stop, she testified. Instead, the woman said, Banks forced himself on her.

A second woman who prosecutors said met Banks through Match.com also testified.

At his preliminary hearing, a third woman testified that Banks groped her after they met on ChristianMingle, although that incident was not included in the charges against him.

Banks did not testify at his trial. If convicted on all charges, he could face 44 years in prison, prosecutors said.

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