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A 31-year-old New Bedford man was convicted at trial yesterday of charges related to the systematic sexual assault of a prepubescent girl and was sentenced to serve 15 to 20 years in state prison, Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III announced.
Ronald Teixeira was convicted of two counts of rape of a child and three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person under the age of 14. The defendant was convicted by Fall River Superior Court Judge Thomas McGuire at the conclusion of a two-day bench trial.
Between February of 2013 and May of 2014, the defendant was living in a home in New Bedford with the victim and the victim’s mother. During that time the defendant raped and sexually molested the girl on numerous occasions. The victim eventually reported the assaults to her mother about two years after they occurred.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Thompson, who argued for a 20 to 25 years state prison term. The defense, however, recommended a more lenient two-year state prison sentence.
In addition to the 15 to 20-year state prison term, Judge McGuire also placed the defendant on supervised probation for an additional 10 years. The defendant must register as a sex offender, must complete sex offender counseling and can have no unsupervised contact with children during the pendency of his post-release probationary term.
“I am very pleased that the court held the victim accountable for his outrageous behavior. The defendant took advantage of his relationship with the victim’s mother to engage in despicable conduct with an eight-year-old child. I commend the victim for coming forward and testifying against the defendant,” District Attorney Quinn said.
