WESTFIELD – A city man will be in Walpole for at least the next four years after he was allowed to plead guilty Monday to seven child sexual assault charges in Hampden Superior Court.
Judge John S. Ferrara accepted guilty pleas from Robert Heath, 44, of 49 Berkshire Drive, for three charges of rape and abuse of a child aggravated by age difference, three charges of indecent assault and battery on a child younger than 14 years-of-age and a charge of rape of a child with force.
He was sentenced to four concurrent terms of not less than four years nor more than 6 years for the four rape charges.
After Heath completes those terms at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution – Cedar Junction, a maximum security prison, he will, as a consequence of the three indecent assault charges, be placed on probation for ten years.
In addition, Heath will be required to submit a DNA sample, will be required to register as a sex offender, will be required to complete a sex offender evaluation and is required to stay away from and have no contact with the victim and her family.
Heath will also be barred from unsupervised contact with any person younger than 16 year-of-age, including family members.
According to the indictments, Heath was a friend of the victim’s parents and, between January, 2006 and July, 2008, would care for the victim and her siblings in his Westfield home.
The indictments for the crimes Heath admitted to allege that during that period, while the victim was 4-6 years of age, Heath had manual, oral and genital intercourse with the girl.
The case came to attention of city police after the victim told the mother of a playmate that she was having sex with the man. It was investigated by Detective Roxanne Bradley who presented the results of her investigation to Hampden District Attorney Mark Mastroianni for prosecution.
The case was prosecuted in court by Assistant District Attorney Anne K. Yereniuk.
