UCI Student Arrested in Rape of Teen

After an Internet sting in which a teenager played decoy, Irvine police on Sunday arrested a UC Irvine student on suspicion of raping and torturing a 15-year-old girl in a deserted university parking lot.

Brian Dance, 20, of Newport Beach was arrested after the decoy, also 15, went to the same chat room where he had allegedly met the victim and arranged a meeting.

Dance, a social ecology major, and the victim struck up a conversation in an Internet chat room, said Police Sgt. Tom Little. Dance said he was 17 and the victim said she was 16. They arranged to meet Thursday at the Block at Orange for a date.

Police gave this account of what happened:

Dance drove to the mall about 4:30 p.m. Thursday to pick up the victim. The teen got into his Honda Accord and he told her he had to drive to UC Irvine to meet a friend on campus. He pulled into a university parking lot that was vacant during the holiday break. There, he pushed her into the back seat of the car and attacked her, police said.

Dance allegedly punched the teen in the face, knocking out a tooth. Police said he duct-taped her mouth and tied her hands behind her back. Then he beat her with his belt and slashed her with a knife, carving several marks on her face, reports state. Investigators said he tried to make a swastika.

Throughout the two-hour ordeal, the assailant kept his sunglasses on to hide his eyes. Eventually, the attacker robbed the girl of a “small amount of money” from her purse and ordered her out of the car, police said. He barked at her to lie down on the street and keep her eyes down as he drove away.

The girl managed to wriggle her hands free and pull the tape from her eyes as the car sped off. By now, it was 8 p.m. and the girl staggered to a nearby street and flagged down a motorist, who called police.

The girl was taken to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, where she was admitted in serious but stable condition, police said. Her cuts drew blood but were not deep enough to leave permanent scars, police said.

She was released early Friday. “She’s recovering and healing,” Little said.

At the Police Department, the sergeant said that even hard-bitten detectives familiar with investigating sexual assaults were shocked when they heard what had happened. The victim gave investigators a description of her attacker, but it wasn’t much to go on.

The victim, unbeknownst to police, persuaded her friend to contact the suspect online. When that succeeded, they told police. Under police supervision, the friend arranged to meet the suspect at the Block.

When Dance arrived, detectives were waiting.

The suspect was wearing a belt with the same buckle that the rape victim had described to police. And in the front seat of his Honda sat a knife matching the one the attacker had used, authorities said.

The victim has since positively identified him, police said.

Dance is being held in Orange County Jail, and police said they would request $250,000 bail. He is expected to be charged with rape with a foreign object, torture and robbery, police said. Little said Dance will likely be arraigned next week.

The attack took place while UC Irvine students were on vacation, with the university’s 1,800 acres patrolled by the usual complement of three campus police officers, said UC Irvine Police Sgt. Steve Quan.