22
Standing for his sentencing for child rape, Edward Lapanne stares at the camera.
Boy Child rapist gets 7 years
LAWRENCE -- An elderly North Shore man who was convicted 18 years ago of child rape in Maine was sentenced to seven years in prison on the same charge yesterday.
Edward Lapanne, 72, pleaded guilty to raping two young Salem, Mass., brothers while they were under the watch of his girlfriend, the children's baby-sitter, and he was living in
an elderly housing complex in Salem because officials did not know of his prior sex-assault record.
CHERYL SENTER/Staff photo Standing for his sentencing for child rape, Edward Lapanne stares at
th
camera. His lawyer, Rebecca Whitehill, stands at his side.
Prosecutors said
the
boys were 3 and 6 years old when the rapes occurred in 2001 and 2002.
In 1986, Lapanne was sentenced to eight years in a Maine prison for child rape and gross sexual misconduct in a case involving children between the ages of 5 and 11, authorities said.
After his parole from the Maine prison, he was deemed a "high-risk" sex offender, but police said they did not learn that until after his arrest in Massachusetts in November of 2002.
Authorities said Maine had never entered his previous record information into the state and national database of criminal offenders.
Lapanne's girlfriend also claimed she did not know of his sex-offender background. She was supposed to b
e watching the child victims during the day while their mother worked.
The Salem victims, now 5 and 8, and their parents were in court yesterday for Lapanne's sentencing. They ha
d dr
awn
pict
ures of Lap
anne and themselves to show their anger toward him. The pictures were handed over to Judge Patrick Rile
y.
Lapanne's attorney said he decided to plead guilty to the child rape charges so that his victims did not have to testify in court.
"He does not want to make these children testify," said defense lawyer Rebecca Whitehill. "He is sorry for what happened."
That carried some weight with the judge, who said he had factored that into his sentencing.
"The defendant has not forced these children to have to go through the process of a trial," Riley said in announcing the prison sentence, which will be followed by three years of probation and lifetime parole supervision.
"I think that the issues of public safety are covered by
lifetime parole," the judge said.
Prosecutors had asked the judge to impose a 10-year prison term, to be followed by 10 years of probation as well as lifetime paro
le super
vision.
Lapanne was ordere
d to have no contact with the boys or their parents, or with any children under the age of 16. He must take part in sex offender counseling and faces man
datory requirements that he register as a sex offender and submit a DNA sample.
The boys' parents, who have since moved from Salem to Gloucester, said that while they were still unhappy about the sentence, it is one they could live with, given Lapanne's advanced age and poor health.
Lapanne has spent more than a year and a half held on $50,000 cash bail, an amount he has been unable to raise. Some of that time was spent at the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital, a state facility in Boston, where he underwent prostate surgery.
The former leather worker also suffers from diabetes and severe high blood pressure, his la
wyer said.
