A serial rapist who wept in court as he was convicted over a string of attacks against women he met on dating sites has been sentenced to 158 years in prison.
Cardiologist Stephen Matthews drugged and raped women after luring them to his Denver home in a four-year reign of terror between 2019 and the start of last year.
Eleven victims came forward to testify against him but prosecutors fear there were dozens more as one branded him ‘one of the most prolific serial rapists in the history of the state of Colorado‘.
The mother of the rapist doctor pleaded for leniency, telling him ‘I love you always, and no matter what’, but victims welcomed the sentence, branding him a ‘narcissistic monster’.
‘We are now a powerful army of survivors, and you are nothing,’ one said.
Self-pitying rapist Stephen Matthews cried in the dock as he was convicted of 35 counts
He was sentenced to 135 years for drugging 11 women and raping nine after meeting them on dating sites during a four-year reign of terror from 2019 to early 2023
Matthews, 37, cried in the dock as he was convicted on 35 counts in August, and returned to court on Friday to learn his fate.
‘You have diminished this world,’ District Court Judge Eric Johnson told him as she passed sentence.
‘You have dimmed many of its lights. You’ve hurt our society, and it’s a darker place because of you. You brought disgrace upon yourself.’
Matthews trawled through online dating apps including Hinge and Tinder and ‘strategically’ tried to arrange dates near his home in the city’s Lower Highland neighborhood.
Prosecutors said there was a remarkable similarity between the accounts given by his victims.
Allie, who did not want her last name to be used, said she was ‘excited to go on a first date and get to know him’, after seeing his profile on Hinge complete with pictures of his dog and his outdoor adventures.
The pair met at a bar for a drink in January last year and he suggested walking to his townhouse to let his dog out.
Allie said that once there, she went to the bathroom. When she came out, Matthews had made her drink without asking if she wanted one.
‘I didn’t want to be rude and didn’t want to offend him so I took the drink,’ she told CBS News‘ Brian Maass.
Allie said she had only drank around a quarter of the glass when she started feeling ill and her speech became slurred.
‘I remember at one point falling all the way to the ground and looking up at him as he was about to film me,’ she said.
At this point, Matthews placed her in a headlock and pulled her head back to forcibly kiss her. She said the position was ‘painful’ and she could not break free.
‘I felt like I had to get out,’ Allie said.
She escaped, shoeless, vomiting and barely conscious into an Uber but within days another victim was not so lucky.
Prosecutors said there was a remarkable similarity between the accounts given by his victims
Pictured: an image from convicted rapist Stephen Matthews’ Hinge dating profile
The pervert cardiologist would go out of his way to gull his victim’s suspicions, according to attorney Stephen J Burg, and used the same tactics on each
Audrey met him for brunch before he invited her back to his home where they played Jenga and took a dip in his hot tub.
Her last memory is of sipping a drink he made her, before coming to, hours later, back in her own home with hickeys, bruises, and no recollection of what had happened.
Matthews was a trusted and respected member of Colorado’s medical community
She went to the police and as they began to investigate they found more women with exactly the same memory; a date, a game of Jenga, a drink, a hot tub – and nothing else.
One said that 10 hours after meeting Matthews were a complete blank and ‘she had no idea how she got home.’
Attorney Stephen J Burg said the pervert cardiologist would go out of his way to gull his victim’s suspicions.
‘He would build trust and then get them to have a drink, usually close to his home, and drug them in that drink’ he explained.
‘They would be very, very impaired and not know what was going on. And he would sexually assault them.’
‘He was very savvy and able to build trust. He’d say ‘Let’s meet in a public place’, and talk about his dog and then oftentimes use that as an excuse to head back to his house or apartment.’
One victim recalled vomiting and curling up in a fetal position after a single drink at Matthews’ home before waking up at her home with Matthews in the room.
When she refused a second date he sent her nude photographs he had taken of her unconscious.
A fourth told investigators that she remembered only waking up in Matthews’ home naked and vomiting while handcuffed to his sofa.
‘This was methodical,’ one victim told KDVR.
‘This wasn’t about consent. This wasn’t about sex. It was about control. He used his position and the title of former doctor to abuse trust with myself and others.’
Allie, 34, said her encounter with cardiologist Stephen Matthews in January last year was ‘the scariest day of my life’ as she feared he might kill her
Allie, who did not want her last name to be used, said she connected with Matthews via the Hinge dating app and was ‘excited to go on a first date and get to know him’
After final victim ‘Audrey’ went to the police they found a succession of women with the exact same story at the hands of Denver’s rapist doctor Stephen Matthews
Allie discovered that there was already a Facebook group where Matthews’ victims were starting to piece together what had happened to them and police arrested him in March last year.
By October, more than a dozen victims had come forward, and the medic was charged with 38 counts against 11 women, nine of whom he raped.
‘When the defendant insists, ‘No, just stay for five more minutes,’ that stands out to her because the defendant knows how quickly this is going to act,’ prosecutor Bree Beasley told the jury.
‘And he knows if she just waits five more minutes, he’s got her. And he did.
‘Because the next thing that she remembers is waking up completely naked on the floor, screaming, ‘What did you do?’ She’s terrified.’
Audrey said that Matthews ‘gave all of us a life sentence, just not behind bars’.
‘One of the hardest things about sexual assault and rape is that your body is the crime scene, and you carry that with you forever.’
Allie said she has ‘no doubt’ that there are more victims out there who have yet to be identified because Matthews was a regular on the dating apps.
‘I believe the survivors who came forward are just the tip of the iceberg,’ she added.
‘It was a huge relief to have the jury say they believed me and the other women.
‘Every single day there’s at least a moment of my day that revolves around this person who hurt me.’
The mother of the rapist doctor pleaded for leniency, telling him ‘I love you always, and no matter what’, but victims welcomed the sentence, branding him a ‘narcissistic monster’
Denver DA Beth McCann thanked the rapist’s survivors for bringing him to justice.
‘Stephen Matthews took advantage of nearly a dozen women in the most egregious way imaginable, and for that, he will now pay a significant price,’ she said.
‘I hope today’s verdict provides a measure of comfort to all the victims, whose courage throughout this case should be an inspiration to us all.’