A woman was raped in a tent at the Occupy camp late on Monday night or early Tuesday morning, police said.
Police said a woman went to find the victim on Tuesday afternoon because she had not seen her.
She went to the woman’s tent and called for her, but there was no answer, so she looked inside the tent and found the woman, police said.
The victim wasn’t able to respond, police said, so the witness yelled out to other Occupiers to call police and emergency medical services.
At some point, the victim told the witness she had been raped in a tent at the camp, police said.
Police responded to the camp at 3:25 p.m. The victim was brought to Yale-New Haven Hospital and police charged England Gamble, 53, of New Haven, with first-degree sexual assault and first-degree unlawful restraint.
Gamble is on the state sex offender registry for a first-degree sexual assault conviction in 1991. The registry said he was released from prison in 1996 and did not register his address.
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Members of the Occupy movement said neither Gamble nor the victim are members of the movement. They said both are homeless and set up a tent nearby.
Police have not classified Gamble as homeless, but said if the Occupy movement was not on the green, that Gamble would not have been able to set up camp there.
Gamble is due in court on Wednesday.
The attack happened as the protesters were in a battle with the city about occupying the New Haven Green. The city had given the Occupiers a deadline of noon to remove their tents, but lawyers for the Occupy group took the case to federal court, seeking a court order stop any eviction.
They argue that the activists' free speech rights are at stake and the judge issued a two-week reprieve.
City officials said last night that the group fails to recognize that the New Haven Green is a public space for all and the activists are essentially seeking to have the Green declared their own private property.
