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Life for child rapist Corey Saunders
 Convicted child rapist Corey Deen Saunders sits in New Bedford Superior Court today where he was sentenced to life in prison for the January 2008 rape of a 6-year-old boy at the New Bedford Public Library. He pleaded guilty in February. (Associated Press)
Top Headlines Saunders was sentenced by New Bedford Superior Court Judge Robert Kane for the January 2008 rape of the boy at the New Bedford Public Library. He showed no reaction. Saunders had pleaded guilty in February. Prosecutors said Saunders lured the boy into a reading room at the library while the victim's mother worked on a computer only a few feet away. At the time of the attack, Saunders was a Level 3 sex offender on probation after serving four years in prison for the attempted rape of a 7-year-old South Attleboro boy. A Level 3 sex offender is considered the most likely to commit a sex crime again. The life term was recommended by Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter and Assistant District Attorney MaryClare Flynn in part because of the ages of the victims in both cases and the circumstances of the crimes. The 27-year-old Saunders will be eligible for parole after 15 years. Saunders served four years in prison for attempting to rape the South Attleboro boy just hours after being placed by state social workers in the boy's home in 1999, when Saunders was 17. He was released in 2006, despite objections from prosecutors and three psychologists. If Saunders is ever released from prison, he will be placed on probation for the rest of his life. Under the terms of his probation, Saunders must undergo sex offender treatment and counseling and have no contact with children. He is also ordered to stay away from the victim and his family and submit his DNA to the state's database. In her victim-impact statement, the mother of the victim said Saunders "tried to take my son's innocence away." "Corey Saunders is a sick individual that needs a lot of treatment and help. He has an urge that cannot be controlled. It is a sickness that needs to be controlled. The solution to this is incarceration for the rest of his life. That's all," she said. "He should not be out and about in society. He is a danger to children in society. Not another a child nor family should go through the pain that we have endured," she said. Saunders was arrested on Jan. 30, 2008, and has been held in jail since then without bail. He was given a maximum five-year prison term in April for violating his probation in the 2000 South Attleboro case. Public defender Alan Zwirblis recommended a shorter sentence with probation.
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Tess wrote on Apr 3, 2009 6:46 PM:
jose21 wrote on Apr 3, 2009 5:53 PM:
Jan wrote on Apr 3, 2009 4:37 PM:
Some are willing to think that there's no such thing.
Well, here it is: Exhibit A "
ben123 wrote on Apr 3, 2009 3:05 PM:
doug wrote on Apr 3, 2009 1:47 PM:
stabler wrote on Apr 3, 2009 1:18 PM:
jose21 wrote on Apr 3, 2009 11:52 AM:
With that said, Doug, I disagree, he is sick. That's not an excuse, but he clearly is a very sick man. Not only for what he did, but to be so addicted to his urges that he'd do it in a public library with people around.
Instead of him sitting in a cell all day, I'd love to see him sent to a lab and have doctors cut him up and dig into his mind to find exactly what it is that makes people like him do the things they do. Then maybe we'd be able to take steps to make sure people like this never harm anyone. "
sunfan wrote on Apr 3, 2009 10:06 AM:
doug wrote on Apr 3, 2009 7:52 AM:
summer wrote on Apr 2, 2009 5:19 PM:
jm wrote on Apr 2, 2009 4:59 PM: