Patrick Ludwig - Repeat Sex Offender - Wrote Letters Pretending to be his victim

Ludwig was charged with witness tampering because he sent a letter to a church in Texas using the victim's return address. Addressed to a pastor, the letter purported to be a confession by the victim that she had wrongfully accused a man of rape.

The letter was returned to the woman because the church had moved to a new address, police said. State forensic analysts said a DNA sample taken from the envelope matched a sample provided by Ludwig.

A New London Superior Court judge Thursday told a Waterford man with a history of sex crimes that he was a danger to society incapable of controlling his impulses.

“You frighten me, sir,” said Judge Susan Handy before sentencing Patrick Ludwig. “You put the victim in an untenable position. I told your lawyer I don't think it's enough time.”

Handy sentenced Ludwig to six years in prison, suspended after three years served and 10 years' probation for third-degree sexual assault and tampering with a witness.

Handy told Ludwig that he would be a two-time convicted sex offender who would appear on the sex offender registry for the rest of his life.

Handy said she felt the sentence was not long enough, but she accepted the plea deal to spare the victim from the uncertainty of a jury trial. The victim also agreed with the plea deal, the state said.

Ludwig had accepted the state's offer just as the trial was under way.

Prosecutor John P. Gravalec-Pannone said the victim told police Ludwig came to her apartment to help her with a heating problem, then forced her into her bedroom and raped her with her 2-year-old daughter in the home.

“This is the first case I've had in the 20 years of doing this that the sex assault victim and the assailant literally live next door to each other,” said Gravalec-Pannone.

The woman told police that Ludwig became very aggressive, and she just laid back until he finished.

She said she was thinking of her sister, who had been raped and killed in 1991 in South Carolina and that she was concerned for her daughter's safety, the warrant said.

The victim said she did not know what to do, so she called her older sister, who works at a New London law firm, and told her what happened. She only knew of her attacker as Patrick, but the sister went online and found Ludwig's photo on the sex offender registry, the warrant said.

Ludwig was convicted in 1990 of second-degree sexual assault. He was sentenced to 54 months in prison in that case. The victim was 11 years old.

The victim in the Waterford case was present in court Thursday but opted not to speak on her behalf.

Ludwig spoke briefly, apologizing to the victim.

Ludwig was charged with witness tampering because he sent a letter to a church in Texas using the victim's return address. Addressed to a pastor, the letter purported to be a confession by the victim that she had wrongfully accused a man of rape.

The letter was returned to the woman because the church had moved to a new address, police said. State forensic analysts said a DNA sample taken from the envelope matched a sample provided by Ludwig.

While on probation, Ludwig will have to comply with various conditions. He will have to undergo sex offender treatment, have no contact with children under 16 years old and submit to random polygraph tests.