NEWPORT BEACH – A judge has raised bail to $5 million for a former Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy accused of sexually assaulting his wife and torturing her lover after she threatened to leave him.

Robert Avery McClain, 34, of Irvine was charged in Orange County Superior Court with aggravated mayhem, torture and sodomy. If convicted, he faces a possible life sentence.

Bail was increased Thursday from $1 million to $5 million. The judge also issued a protective custody order that bars McClain from contacting either of the two victims. He is scheduled to be arraigned Oct. 17.

Prosecutors said McClain punched and kicked the couple on Sunday night after meeting them at the boyfriend's apartment complex. McClain is accused of cutting the man's face with a knife, forcing the couple to undress and ordered his wife to castrate her lover.

After she pretended to do so, McClain then allegedly sodomized her, chopped off her hair with the knife and brought her to their home. She escaped with their four children the next day.

The male victim was found early Monday by a cleaning crew and was hospitalized in a coma. He is expected to survive.

McClain's uncle, Charles McClain, told the Orange County Register he talked to his nephew from jail earlier this week and that the younger McClain had said he was attacked by his wife's suitor.

Charles McClain also said that his nephew told him his wife had cheated on him and that the two were planning to separate.

“He was planning on finding a place and moving out,” Charles McClain said. “Robert is a real good father, and he didn't feel his wife was acting in an appropriate manner, especially since she's a mother.”

McClain, who served as a sheriff's deputy for 10 months, resigned Wednesday before the Sheriff's Department could formally terminate him.

Information from: The Orange County Register, www.ocregister.com