FALL RIVER, MASS. (WHDH) - A former medical doctor at St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford will spend more than a decade in state prison after his conviction on child rape charges Tuesday.
Sujan Kayastha, 42, of Dartmouth, was convicted of rape of a child aggravated by age difference, electronic enticement of a child for commercial sex, possession of child pornography, posing a child in the nude and sending obscene matter to a child in Fall River Superior Court.
After his conviction Kayastha was immediately sentenced to 12 years in state prison followed by 5 years of supervised probation.
According to prosecutors, Kayastha first met the victim in September 2018. At that point, the victim was 14 years old.
“[Kayastha] later exchanged nude photographs and videos with the child, knowing that the child was under 18 years of age,” Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn’s office said in a statement. “On December 6, 2018, the defendant drove to Attleboro where he picked up the boy, who resided in a group home in the area. The defendant drove the boy to the Shangri-La Motel in Seekonk where he paid the minor victim $200 to engage in a sex act with him.”
A staff member of the group home suspected sexual exploitation of the victim and contacted Attleboro police.
“Attleboro Police were able to recover online records which included communications between the defendant and victim along with nude photographs and videos that were exchanged,” the DA’s office said. “The defendant admitted to having sex with the minor victim.”
Quinn said the sentence is “well deserved”.
“The defendant was convicted of extremely disturbing and demented conduct involving a very vulnerable fourteen-year-old boy,” he said. “He preyed on the victim by exchanging pornographic pictures that resulted in the defendant raping the victim in a motel. The sentence imposed by the court was well deserved.”
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