Local News in Brief : Laguna Beach : Suspect Held on Rape and Kidnaping Charges

A 23-year-old Yorba Linda woman, who told police she was beaten, bound and sexually assaulted by a man she had just befriended, managed to escape from the five-hour ordeal at his home and call police early Thursday, authorities said.

The unidentified woman, who was treated at a local hospital for cuts and bruises, was recuperating at her mother’s home Thursday night, Laguna Beach Police investigator Lance Ishmael said.

Mark Charles Cunniffe, 30, of Newport Beach was arrested as he walked out of his parents’ house in the 100 block of McKnight Drive carrying a bag with glass from a window broken during the fight and tape used to bind the woman, Ishmael said.

Cunniffe was held in Orange County in lieu of $50,000 bail on suspicion of kidnaping, false imprisonment and rape with a foreign object, police said.

Neighbors heard the woman scream for help around 4 a.m. Thursday, but arriving police who searched the area could find nothing amiss, Ishmael said. The woman only screamed once and no more because she she feared for her life, she later told police, he said.

The woman and her two roommates met Cunniffe and some of his friends Wednesday at a Red Onion restaurant in Newport Beach, Ishmael said. They had not known each other beforehand.

When the rest of the group decided to board a boat, Cunniffe asked the woman for a ride to his parent’s home in Laguna Beach and she agreed, Ishmael said. After they arrived, the pair kissed for awhile before she resisted, a fight ensued and then he attacked her, Ishmael said.

“Once he got her inside, he wouldn’t let her leave,” Ishmael said.