Ex-Navy officer found guilty in ChristianMingle, Match.com rape case

A San Diego County jury on Monday found a Del Mar man guilty of raping two women he met through the Internet dating sites ChristianMingle and Match.com.

Sean Banks, a 38-year-old computer technician and former Navy officer, was found guilty of rape, rape on an unconscious person, and rape using a foreign object.

Banks, who used a pseudonym when meeting the women online, could face 40 years to life in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 5.

One 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. After the verdicts were read, El Cajon Superior Court Judge Daniel Goldstein ordered Banks taken to jail without bail.

For news as it happens in the greater San Diego area, follow @LATsandiego