A 62-year-old New Bedford man was sentenced to up to 15 years in prison last week after pleading guilty to raping a young girl, officials say.
Michael Avellar pleaded guilty in Fall River Superior Court to indictments charging him with aggravated rape of a child under the age of 12, aggravated rape of a child over the age of 12, assault with intent to rape a child, indecent assault and battery on a person under 14 years of age, possession of child pornography, assault and battery, assault with a dangerous weapon, violation of a restraining order, and assault and battery on a family or household member.
Avellar started sexually assaulting the young girl at the age of 10 and the rapes continued until the abuse was discovered by the victim’s mother when she was 16 years old.
He has a 27-page criminal record, replete with assaultive behavior.
Judge Yessayan sentenced Avellar to serve a 10 to 15-year state prison term, to be followed by 10 years of supervised probation with GPS monitoring.
“The defendant engaged in violent and despicable conduct against the victims. He repeatedly sexually abused a young victim, starting at age five. He has a long history of committing terrible acts of violence against family members,” Bristol District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III said in a statement lamented. “Hopefully this sentence will incapacitate him and prevent him from hurting anymore children or women in the future. I commend the victim for her courage in coming forward despite being assaulted and threatened with a gun by the defendant.”
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