Convicted rapist guilty of ID theft after decades of hiding

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A convicted rapist who hid in Florida for more than 40 years after skipping out on his Connecticut prison sentence has pleaded guilty to assuming a stolen identity. Court records show 77-year-old Douglas Bennett pleaded guilty Thursday in Tampa federal court to passport fraud and aggravated identity theft. Bennett was arrested last November. A criminal complaint says Bennett submitted a passport application in 2016 using the name, date of birth and Social Security number of a person who was born in 1940 and died in 1945. The complaint says emergency contact information in the application led investigators to discover Bennett’s true identity, which they confirmed with fingerprints.