Soldier raped children who were sleeping in their beds at Georgia base, feds say
A federal judge handed two concurrent life sentences to a former U.S. Army soldier who prosecutors said raped two boys on a Georgia military base as “they slept in the safety of their own beds.”
Austin Michael Burak, 32, of Oak Harbor, Washington, was sentenced Sept. 4 after he was found guilty of abusive sexual contact of a child and aggravated sexual abuse of a child in connection with the assaults at Fort Stewart in August 2017, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia.
“There are appropriately severe consequences for sexually assaulting children. … The community is safer now that a sexual predator will spend the rest of his life imprisoned,” U.S. Attorney Meg E. Heap said in a statement.
Burak’s court-appointed defense attorney did not immediately return McClatchy News’ request for comment Sept. 10.
The boys Burak sexually abused at Fort Stewart, about a 40-mile drive southwest from Savannah, were 9 and 13, according to court documents.
The abuse occurred “after a night of drinking,” prosecutors wrote in a trial brief.
Burak gave the 13-year-old juice with alcohol and “told him to drink it,” then sexually assaulted the boy, prosecutors said.
The boy could tell Burak was intoxicated and “was frightened to fight back,” the trial brief says.
Burak later returned to the teen’s room to apologize and pleaded with him to “not to tell anyone because his wife was pregnant at the time,” prosecutors wrote in the filing.
Nearly three years later, the boys’ stepfather, who was working with the Army Criminal Investigation Division, called Burak and confronted him about the assaults, according to the brief.
Burak acted surprised over the phone and repeatedly apologized, adding that he had “zero recollection of that night,” the brief says.
When the stepfather “asked (Burak) if (the victims) were liars, (he) responded “No, I’m not saying they’re liars,” prosecutors wrote in the filing.
During Burak’s trial, three additional witnesses testified to being sexually abused by him, according to prosecutors.
One said Burak had sexually assaulted her for years, from when she was in first grade until she was 14, court documents say.
A second witness testified Burak sexually assaulted her when she was between 7 and 9, when they played a game she described as similar to hide and seek, according to court filings.
The third witness said Burak assaulted her at age 17, when they had been “staying in the same house,” prosecutors wrote in the trial brief.
Following his conviction, Burak sought a new trial, court records show. Two days before his sentencing, he was denied a new trial.
“This sentence ensures that Austin Burak will never again have the opportunity to harm another child,” Paul Brown, the special agent in charge of FBI Atlanta, said in a statement.
The FBI worked with the Army Criminal Investigation Division at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, to investigate Burak, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Concerns or suspicions about child sexual exploitation can be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline online or by calling 1-800-843-5678.
This story was originally published September 10, 2025 at 2:50 PM with the headline "Soldier raped children who were sleeping in their beds at Georgia base, feds say."
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