Police: Man raped woman he met on dating website

BRIDGEPORT — A local man has been charged with choking and raping a Massachusetts woman he met on an online dating website.

Gimel Anderson, 25, of Hawley Avenue, was charged Friday with aggravated first- degree sexual assault, first- degree strangulation, seconddegree assault and firstdegree unlawful restraint.

He was being held in lieu of $ 750,000 bond.

On Oct. 20, Springfield, Mass., police were called to a hospital there to interview an assault victim. Police said a young woman had bruises on her face and throat and cuts on her head that required stitches.

Police said the woman told them she contacted Anderson through the dating website Tagged, and arranged to come to Bridgeport to meet him.

The woman told police she picked up Anderson at his home. Police said he was carrying a bottle of beer, got into the woman’s car and then directed her to drive to Seaside Park, ostensibly so they could watch the sunset.

However, once they parked there, police said, Anderson began choking the woman and hit her in the head with the beer bottle. He then pulled off her clothes and raped her, police said.

Police said that before leaving the victim’s car, Anderson took a photo with his cellphone of her driver’s license and threatened to come to her home and kill her if she went to police.

The woman then drove to the hospital near her home in Springfield.