Convicted rapist cuts off his GPS device during trial and escapes, MA prosecutor says
.jpg "A man convicted of child rape cut off his GPS tracking device during his trial and escaped in Massachusetts, a prosecutor said. Police are looking for him.")
A man convicted of child rape cut off his GPS tracking device during his trial and escaped before he could be sentenced in Massachusetts, a prosecutor said.
He was still on the run as of Wednesday, May 4, following his mid-April conviction and attempts to locate him have been unsuccessful, according to the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office.
Now, authorities are calling on the public for help after he fled three days into his six-day trial.
Police are searching for Stephen Corbin Jr., 38 of Methuen, who was convicted April 14 of eight counts of aggravated child rape in connection to the sexual assaults of two teenage girls, ages 14 and 15, who he knew in 2017, a May 3 news release said. He cut off his bracelet in “the area of North Street in Andover.”
“It is relatively rare for someone to just disappear in the middle of a trial,” District Attorney Marian Ryan said during a May 3 news conference.
In 2017, Corbin was arraigned in Middlesex Superior Court and released on a $25,000 cash bail, Ryan said. Additionally, he was ordered to wear the GPS device, stay away from the two girls and remain under a curfew that permitted him to go to work.
“He abided by those conditions throughout that period of time,” Ryan noted, adding that the bail conditions stand ahead of sentencing unless they are violated.
Roughly five years ago, Corbin is accused of sexually assaulting the two teenagers multiple times at a home and at a motel, according to the news release. He would give them drugs and alcohol beforehand.
Following his disappearance, investigators located his truck near his home in Methuen but he was nowhere to be found, Ryan said.
“Either he’s concealed someplace or he has left the jurisdiction completely.”
Corbin is described as standing 5 feet, 11 inches and having blonde hair and blue eyes, according to the news release. He weighs roughly 150 pounds and is known to “have ties” to Methuen, Lawrence and Haverhill in Massachusetts, and Hudson in New Hampshire.
“Members of the public with any information on Corbin’s whereabouts should immediately call Massachusetts State Police at 978-538-6180 and should not attempt to approach him,” the release said.
Methuen is roughly 30 miles north of Boston.
This story was originally published May 4, 2022 at 11:26 AM with the headline "Convicted rapist cuts off his GPS device during trial and escapes, MA prosecutor says."
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