Man jailed after pleading guilty to raping disabled stepdaughter

When Ashley, who couldn’t walk or talk, began having seizures, her mum installed cameras in her bedroom. What she discovered was shocking.

Warning: Distressing

A US man has been jailed for sexually abusing his disabled stepdaughter – after he was caught on a camera installed in her bedroom to monitor her unexplained seizures.

Brian Kenneth Urban, 52, was sentenced to serve five felony charges consecutively after pleading guilty to rape and forcible sexual abuse of his victim, Ashley Vigil.

Ashley, 31, had a rare disorder known as Rett syndrome, a severe condition of the nervous system which affected her growth and mental condition.

It almost exclusive effects females, with one in every 9000 live births in Australia affected, Better Health states.

In Ashley’s case, she had “grown to about the size of an eight-year-old girl” and had been left “unable to communicate”.

Horrifically, this meant Ashley couldn’t walk, talk, or fight when her stepdad repeatedly raped her, CBS’s KUTV reported.

Ashley Vigil, who lived with a severe disability that left her ‘unable to communicate’ and with the ‘body of an eight-year-old’ was repeatedly raped by her stepfather. Picture: KUTV

Urban claimed in court his actions were caused by “elevated testosterone levels”, which he said caused him to commit the “horrible” acts against Ashley.

“It is obvious that my testosterone levels were elevated… During this horrible event I was in a dreamlike state where reality felt like a dream,” he said while addressing the judge, according to a report by MailOnline.

“I still today would never believe this was actually possible.”

The unimaginable incident that led to his arrest occurred in October 2022 after Ashley’s mum Paula Vigil installed cameras in her daughter’s bedroom to monitor mysterious seizures she had been having following her doctor’s recommendation.

She was horrified when cameras instead uncovered her husband’s unthinkable crimes.

“Her took off her clothes and raped her. He removed her diaper. Then he had to redress her so that I don’t know and put her back in her tiny bed,” Paula told KUTV after Urban’s conviction in October.

“He violated her in the tiny, little safe bubble that was all she had.”

Brian Kenneth Urban, 52, has been jailed after pleading guilty to five felony charges, including rape and forcible sexual abuse of the 31-year-old. Picture: KUTV

Tragically, Ashley died at the end of March, after suffering a fatal seizure, the publication added.

Her mum said Ashley had “lost a lot of weight” at the time of her death, weighing just 22kg, and they were struggling to control the seizures.

Urban pleaded guilty to all five felony charges against him, and was sentenced at West Jordan District Court in Utah on Friday, two weeks after Ashley suddenly died, the MailOnline added.

He will serve between five years to life for each of his two rape convictions, and between one and 15 years a piece for three counts of forcible sexual abuse, according to the report.

Ashley had Rett syndrome, a rare condition that left her unable to walk or talk. Picture: KUTV

Tragically she passed away from a severe seizure two weeks before Urban was sentenced. Picture: KUTV

He was caught after Ashley’s mum installed cameras to investigate her unexplained seizures. Picture: KUTV

Paula is now pushing for a new law that strengthens punishment in sexual abuse cases involving vulnerable adults like Ashley in the US.

“When we have a situation like Ashley — where she’s a 31-year-old woman physically, however, she is no more than a toddler and infant mentally — when someone like Ashley is subjected to sexually assault or battery, the law says we will punish as if she were any other adult, not as if she were a child,” Paula’s lawyer, Nathan Woodward, told KUTV in February.

“There is this big hole there, and we don’t treat these crimes as seriously as we should or punish them as severely as we should.”

A rally supporting “Ashley’s Law” took place outside of the courtroom after the sentencing, showing the mother’s continued determination for her daughter.