By Brian Melley
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — A notorious serial rapist who muffled victims’ screams with a pillowcase had his freedom revoked Friday and was ordered returned to a California state mental hospital for violating the terms of his release, prosecutors said.
Christopher Hubbart, 65, who was dubbed the “Pillowcase rapist” for sexually assaulting dozens of women between 1971 and 1982, was recommitted to Coalinga State Hospital for at least a year, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey said.
Hubbart had violated several terms of his conditional release, including failing five polygraph tests, when he was arrested in August.
“Christopher Hubbart is a prolific serial rapist and even after years of treatment he remains a danger to women,” Lacey said. “Today’s ruling reaffirms our belief that he should remain in a state hospital for additional treatment.”
Hubbart was ordered released from the state hospital in 2013 after doctors said he had completed treatment and was fit to live in the community. He had been deemed a sexually violent predator in 2000 after serving his prison sentence.
Prosecutors and advocates for women objected to his release and there was difficulty finding a landlord willing to rent to him.
He was released from the state hospital in 2014 to live under 24-hour guard in a small house in Lake Los Angeles, an unincorporated area in the high desert of the Antelope Valley, about 40 miles north of downtown.
But even the remote location proved to be a problem.
Protesters routinely demonstrated outside the house, shouting that he should be locked up, carrying signs saying “burn in hell” and even burning effigies of him.