INSIDE EDITION sat down with Kori Cioca who recounts her ordeal of being raped by her superior officer in the Coast Guard.
This ex-Coast Guard seaman is putting a human face on the sexual assault scandal now rocking the military.
Kori Cioca says she was raped by a superior officer. She reported the attack to higher-ups and the reaction shocked her.
Cioca told INSIDE EDITION, "They treated me like I was scum, and that I was the problem."
As Senate hearings into sexual assault in the military got under way in Washington, Cioca's story is especially relevant.
She says the officer came onto her when she reported for duty, but she rejected his moves. That's when he turned against her, she told INSIDE EDITION's Diane McInerney.
"I forgot how to do a knot and he spit in my face in front of seven other men. I was the only female and it was very degrading. I tried to choke back my tears and go to the bathroom," Cioca recalled.
She says the horrific attack came soon after, when she was ordered to go to the officer's room to pick up some keys.
McInerney asked, "What did he do to you?"
"He had the keys in his hand, and he's standing a little bit in the doorway and he said, 'Here they are Cioca, come get 'em.' And he held them out, like taunting me with these keys. So I went in to go get the keys and he grabbed me by my arm and my hair and he raped me," said Cioca.
Cioca suffered a dislocated jaw in the attack. She says the rape shattered her spirit too.
"I was healthy before the military. Now, I'm a mess."
She says her attacker was court martialed and was given, she says, a slap on the wrist. He's still in the Coast Guard.
"He is a shame to the Coast Guard," she said.
Cioca stresses she still admires the Coast Guard and the military in general. With the new hearings bringing the whole issue to light, she hopes something will be done to prevent anyone else suffering as she did.
"There should never be another me, ever again," said Cioca.
