Boston: Rapist files for visitation rights to victim's toddler

Boston - A convicted Massachusetts rapist has applied for visitation rights to his biological child, whom he fathered during the rape a 14-year-old girl.

However the victim, who decided against aborting the child and along with her family is raising the toddler, is terrified at the thought of having to deal with her tormentor, reports MyFoxBoston.com. The teen mother who was reportedly raped by the 20-year-old “family friend” three years ago still suffers from severe anxiety and depression, according to the Fox report. "She got raped at 14. She decided to keep her baby. And now she has to hand her baby over for a visit with her rapist?" the victim’s mother told MyFoxBoston. The man knew the victim from church as boyfriend of her friend’s older sister. He pleaded guilty to statutory rape in Norfolk Superior Court last year. "All this family wants is to cut the cord. Get the rapist out of their lives," said Wendy Murphy, attorney for the rape victim. The prosecutor in the case sought a 3-to-5-year prison term at sentencing however the presiding judge gave the man 16 years probation and ordered him to pay child support. "The consequences of sentencing this man to probation for 16 years, which is really until the child becomes an adult, and making him declare paternity and pay child support, includes that this guy gets a legal father-child relationship out of the deal," Murphy told the station. Murphy has petitioned the judge to change the sentencing language to paying “restitution” instead of “child support.” The amendment would force the rapist to pay child without entitling him to visitation and various parental rights. "All this family wants is to cut the cord. Get the rapist out of their lives. And if the judge wants to help them financially that's great. But let's call it restitution, not child support," Murphy told MyFoxBoston.com. "What kind of legal system commands a toddler into a relationship with the man who raped her mother?"