Former Vanderbilt football player, 21, sobs as he tells Dr Phil he wouldn't have gang-raped unconscious woman if his dad hadn't died and left him without strong male figure
By Lydia Warren
Dailymail.com
9 February 2015
Former Vanderbilt football player Cory Batey has said that he would not have raped an unconscious woman if his father hadn't died when he was young.
The 21-year-old convicted rapist told Dr Phil through tears that if his father had not passed away from cancer when he was nine, he would've had a strong male figure to put him on the right track.
'I would like to think I wouldn't be in this position if he was alive, honestly,' said Batey, who was one of 13 siblings.
'I just think a man needs his father at a certain point in life to mold him and discipline him and I think I missed out on that and I kind of had to choose my own direction.'
Shocked, Dr Phil asked him: 'Because he wasn't there, do you not know right from wrong?'
'Oh, I know right from wrong,' he responded.
Batey was found guilty of aggravated rape last month after assaulting the woman in a dorm with three other football players after a night of drinking in June 2013 - in an attack caught on camera.
As he awaits his sentencing - where he faces more than 140 years behind bars - he sat down for an exclusive interview with Dr Phil, which will air in full on Monday afternoon.
During the interview, he also became emotional as he spoke about his mother, Audrey 'Jeannie' Batey, who has worked at Vanderbilt for 37 years and who supported her son throughout his trial.
'I embarrassed her,' he said. 'I embarrassed her.'
When the jury was shown the graphic videos of him attacking the woman during the trial, he said he couldn't bring himself to look at his mother, who was in the courtroom.
'Because I knew that's not who she raised and I disappointed her more than anything,' he said.
Batey, who is one of 13 children, said that his mother has told him that she knows that he made a mistake and did something wrong but 'we'll be okay eventually'.
Throughout the interview, he said he was sorry for his actions but repeatedly claimed he was so drunk he could remember nothing of the attack - so he does not believe it is a good representation of who he is.
When asked by Dr Phil if he believes he should stay in prison for the rest of his life, which is a possibility when he is sentenced next month, he responded: 'I don't think I should.'
He added that he does not believe his fellow rapist Brandon Vandenburg, who brought the woman back to the dorm and encouraged the others to rape her, should not be locked up for life either.
'Honestly, I think he's a good kid,' he told Dr Phil. 'I think he just got caught up in some unfortunate circumstances.'
He added: 'I think everyone deserves to be forgiven and to be given a second chance. I don't think that was a clear representation of him. I know that's not a clear representation of me.'
When Dr Phil pressed him over the assault, in which he urinated over the woman and laughed as she was raped by the other men and sodomized by a plastic bottle, he said he had not been himself.
'I was drunk out of my mind so I don't think I was thinking,' he said. 'That's just not a clear representation of who I am.'
He went on: 'My whole life, I feel like I've always been a caring individual to look out for the helpless or the less fortunate... That just wasn't my heart. That just wasn't me.'
He added that he hopes his victim and her family can forgive him for his mistake.
When Dr Phil quizzed him about his victim, he said she hoped she could see past what he did to her.
'I wish she could really know the type of person I am,' he said. 'I hate that she had to see me in that light and think I’m that person, because I'm not. When I saw that stuff, I was just praying, I was just saying, "Lord just put it in her heart to forgive me, because that's not me. It’s just not me".
'I wished I could take it all back,' he added. 'I wish there’s a button that, that I could just delete everything, but unfortunately there’s not. And I’m sorry she’s had to go through this... I just hope [her family] can find it in their heart to just forgive me.'
Batey, who was dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit for the interview, was found guilty of aggravated rape and aggravated sexual battery.
He faces up to 60 years behind bars when he is sentenced alongside Vandenburg on March 6.
It took the jurors just three hours to convict the men.
After the verdict, three of the jurors spoke out and revealed that they made their decisions early on in the case after seeing cell phone footage of the attack.
'As soon as we saw the videos and photographic evidence... we knew exactly who was guilty of what and what we were going to come back with,' Todd Easter told ABC News. 'What we knew is that a terrible crime had occurred.'
Another juror, Dr. Deirde Young, said watching the footage - which showed Vandenburg egging on Batey and two other men as the woman lay unconscious - made her feel 'awful.'
'I asked myself, "how could they do this to that young lady?"' Young added.
'There can't be enough explanation to me. I don't know, I think they need to do some real soul searching. I've never experienced anything like these young men.'
In the trial, the victim had testified that Vandenburg, whom she was dating, plied her with alcohol one night in June 2013 and the next thing she remembers is waking up in a strange dorm room.
After dragging her to his dorm room, Vandenburg switched on porn and encouraged Batey and two others to assault the woman with a water bottle and rape her, prosecutors said.
The jury was shown graphic cell phone footage of part of the sexual attack, which the men had recorded. Vandenburg then sent some footage to friends.
One of the men, Brandon Banks, allegedly anally raped the woman with the water bottle as Vandenburg said, 'squeeze that s***', the video showed. Batey then allegedly urinated on her.
She woke up the next day in a friend's dorm room and felt sore but did not know she had been sexually assaulted until she saw the footage of the attack.
During the trial, Batey's attorney had argued that his client was not capable of making decisions because he had consumed so much alcohol. Batey drank as many as 22 drinks that night.
Vandenburg's attorney had argued that his client was not guilty of rape because he was physically unable to rape the girl after a night of drinking.
The victim was in the courtroom for the verdict, and began crying as the two men were declared guilty on all counts.
Two other men, Jaborian 'Tip' McKenzie and Brandon Banks, have also been charged in the incident but a trial date for their case has not yet been announced.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2946381/Former-Vanderbilt-football-player-21-sobs-says-wouldn-t-gang-raped-unconscious-woman-dad-hadn-t-died-left-without-strong-male-figure.html#ixzz3RJjUeGvV
