A former alcoholic who admitted to a 20-year-old sexual assault as part of his recovery pled guilty to aggravated sexual battery and faces two years in prison under a plea deal, the Associated Press reported Nov. 14.

William Beebe, 41, was working through the ninth step of Alcoholics Anonymous -- making amends to those who he had wronged -- when he contacted a former classmate at the University of Virginia and apologized for his role in a sexual assault at a fraternity party in 1984. Beebe wrote Liz Seccuro last year and said, in part, "I want to make clear that I'm not intentionally minimizing the fact of having raped you. I did."

Seccuro, now 39, later contacted police in Charlottesville, and prosecutors filed charges against Beebe. Virginia has no statute of limitations for felonies.

Seccuro said she was 17 years old and a virgin at the time of the assault, which she remembered Beebe taking part in along with others at the party. She said she was upset because Beebe's account of the attack did not match her recollection of the savagery of the incident.

When first arrested, Beebe claimed he was innocent, but he changed his stance in court. "Twenty-two years ago I harmed another person, and I have tried to set that right," Beebe said in pleading guilty this week.

Seccuro has since launched a support group for rape victims, called Sisters Together Assisting Rape Survivors. She attended the trial along with her husband and former sorority sisters. "I think that the idea of closure for any victim of a sexual assault is not reality," Seccuro said. "There is never closure."