Jan 31, 2008 6:29 pm US/Eastern
Sex Offender Accused Of Raping Boy In Library
NEW BEDFORD (WBZ) ―
A convicted Level 3 sex offender is under arrest again. This time he's charged with raping a 6-year-old boy at the New Bedford Public Library.
26-year-old
Corey Saunders is charged with rape of a child by force, indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, and enticing a child.
The boy was at the library with his mother around 5 p.m. Wednesday when police say Saunders lured him away and attacked him.
A library employee became suspicious when she saw the boy with the man. She looked up his photo on a
sex offender database, found the boy's mother and they called police.
He was arrested a short time later.
"The issue here is whether Corey Saunders should have been allowed out in society or anywhere where children are," said police chief Ronald Teachman.
Saunders pleaded guilty in January 2001 to indecent assault and battery of a boy.
In July 2003, prior to his release, officials found probable cause to hold him as a sexually dangerous person.
But in 2006, Bristol County Superior Court Judge Richard Moses released him, even though two court-appointed experts said he was sexually dangerous.
Saunders moved into a homeless shelter in the New Bedford area recently and had just registered as a sex offender last week. Level 3 is the most serious designation for sex offenders.
Saunders was arraigned Thursday at New Bedford District Court. He's being held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing to be held on February 7.
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