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NEW BEDFORD - Outraged police say the 7-year-old boy Corey Saunders attempted to rape hours after being placed in a South Attleboro foster home in 1999 should have been his last victim.

"It should have ended with the Attleboro child," New Bedford Police Lt. Jeffrey Silva said of Saunders, 26, who now is charged with raping a 6-year-old boy in a secluded corner of a New Bedford public library.

"This guy is a pernicious sex offender preying on children all over the commonwealth," Silva said.

New Bedford police say if a superior court judge had agreed with prosecutors, Saunders would have never gotten out of prison in December 2006 after completing his 4-year term for the sexual assault in South Attleboro.

Saunders, a Level 3 high risk sex offender, was scheduled for a dangerousness hearing in New Bedford District Court Thursday, but waived his right to the hearing and to witness the court proceedings. His lawyer, Alan Zwirblis, a New Bedford public defender, agreed that Judge Bernadette L. Sabra would have found Saunders a danger to the public based on the facts of the case alleged in a police report.

Saunders is being held in jail without bail and has a probable cause hearing scheduled Feb. 27.

Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter said at a press conference his office hopes to present the case to a grand jury in two weeks and seek an indictment to have Saunders tried in superior court.

Authorities said they want to be certain of where Saunders lived to be sure there are no other assault victims in the area. He is originally from the New Bedford area.

New Bedford Police Chief Ronald Teachman said Saunders was living in the Boston area after his release from prison. Authorities believe he moved to New Bedford in August 2007, but did not register as a sex offender until Jan. 17.

Authorities are now charging Saunders with failing to register as a sex offender because he did not present himself within 45 days as required by law, Teachman said.

He faces charges of luring a 6-year-old boy into the New Bedford library's magazine stacks Jan. 30 and raping him as the boy's mother worked on a computer just a few feet away. Saunders was arrested that same day outside a homeless shelter.

In December 1999, Saunders, then 17, assaulted a 7-year-old boy on a couch at a South Attleboro foster home just hours after being placed there by the state Department of Social Services.

The attack was interrupted by the victim's mother, who was not told of Saunders' troubled history.

Saunders was sexually abused as a child, has a low IQ and has been in state custody since he was 12, authorities said at the time of his Attleboro arrest. The latest attack has Sutter and Teachman calling for the state Legislature to put more teeth in the law to track and punish sex offenders.

Sutter said unfortunately it takes an incident as "horrendous" as Saunders' case to affect change.

"New legislation is needed. I think there is universal agreement," Sutter said.

Authorities said the New Bedford boy is receiving counseling and that the assault has shaken the community because it took place in a library with the boy's mother close by.

"It's a good, fun, safe place in the library. It's akin to someone breaking into your home. How do you ever feel safe again?" Silva said. "A guy like Corey Saunders robs you of your innocence. How do you get that back?"

- David Linton, Sun Chronicle Staff