A young woman who was raped at gunpoint last year by a local church official benevolently forgave her attacker yesterday shortly before he was sentenced to 33 years in prison.

But Oscar A. Rivera-Licona, 35, rebuffed his victim's offer of absolution. Instead, the former head deacon of the Richmond Evangelistic Center of Seventh-day Adventist questioned the veracity of the woman he raped despite DNA evidence linking him to the crime.

"Is it possible that someone could accuse another person of a crime and be lying about it?" the unapologetic defendant asked Judge Ernest P. Gates Jr. of Chesterfield County Circuit Court through an interpreter.

The surprised judge reminded the Honduras native that he had pleaded no contest in August to abducting, raping and using a gun in attacking the young woman in the Chesterfield Village Apartments, where she lived.

Gates then sentenced Rivera-Licona to 73 years in prison with 40 years suspended. State sentencing guidelines called for a maximum prison term of 21 years and seven months.