Nancy Green
/ photo by Jim Kenyon
UTICA -- A victim of serial rapist Robert Blainey has decided to go public with CNY Central exclusively in hopes of removing a "stigma" that is attached to victims of sex crimes.
Nancy Green disclosed that she was raped by Blainey in September of 1988 while she was walking along Salt Springs Road in the Town of Manlius. She says she was a "random victim." She was one of two rape victims for which Blainey spent 20 years in prison before his release two years ago.
Green feels that victims of sex crimes should have the option of going public. "All I can tell you is how I felt in 1988... I hated the invisibility, the nameless, faceless residue of being a rape victim," she says. "It was hard enough an event to get through. You want people to know. You want to show your face and your name, because it felt as if it was shameful. It felt like a giant secret." Green added, "We don't want to talk about it. I think our culture is paralyzed to these kinds of crimes."
Green feels that victims of sex crimes should be given the option of being identified the same as victims of any other crime. She feels that secrecy surrounding sex crime victims can sometimes affect the prosecution of rapists when prosecutors attempt to keep victims from testifying in a public trial. "I think when we are busy protecting women from victimizing them twice, we're setting up something that's toxic."
Green says when she heard that Blainey had been charged with the murder and rape of 68-year-old Linda Turner in Utica she said "This recent case with Blainey really brought this to light for me, and confirmed how I felt then. Now I cognitively get why I felt the way I did, and then convinced for myself that things could lead to different outcomes if we saw more faces and names, and we talked about it more."
Green says she does not know if Blainey would still be in prison had she gone public, but she says she is torn on her feelings about her rapist. "My heart breaks for him. He is a broken man, and is without humanity as you and I know it. This man should never have gotten out, and we are all outraged over that. This man should be in jail forever," she says.
Greens says she is closely watching the criminal case against Blainey, and will also keep an eye on lawmakers in Albany as they consider legislation to correct conditions which some feel allowed Blainey to walk the streets.
