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Judge considers rape's effects during sentencing

By Julie Manganis
Staff writer
Published: December 16, 2008

PEABODY — It's rare when a judge sees the long-term effects of a crime like child rape, Salem Superior Court Judge Howard Whitehead said yesterday.

But in the case against Randy Roby, one tragic outcome is already playing out in another courthouse, where one of Roby's victims now stands accused of second-degree murder.

Roby, 46, who until yesterday was living in Westborough, was sentenced to 12 to 16 years in state prison yesterday after a jury found him guilty of repeatedly raping one girl and indecently assaulting her younger sister during visits to his home in Peabody in 2000 and 2001.

It's the same sentence Roby received from another judge after he was convicted in 2003. Roby later was granted a new trial after learning that his lawyer rushed to try the case before a suspension of his law license was set to begin.

And while Whitehead granted motions during this new trial to reduce some of the charges from forcible child rape to statutory rape and indecent assault, he called it "a distinction without a difference."

"We're dealing with essentially the same crimes," said Whitehead, crimes he called "devastating to the life of a child."

In this case, the crimes committed by Roby tore a family apart, said the judge, quoting the girls' mother, who had addressed him moments earlier.

"The girls will never be the same," the judge said. "Hopefully, they'll recover the best they can."

The older of the two girls, whose name is being withheld because both she and her sister are sexual assault victims, was arrested last year in a stabbing in Middlesex County.

Her attorney argued at a court hearing earlier this year that the girl lived in fear, a response to living on the streets after foster placements and involvement in the juvenile court system.

The Lowell Sun reported that her attorney blamed her actions on the reflexes she developed living on the streets.

"She believed she was going to be assaulted," the lawyer said at a hearing in the case, which is still pending.

Had she not been molested, she would likely have never been torn from her family and eventually put in the position she was in when she allegedly stabbed a man, prosecutor Karen Hopwood told the judge yesterday after Whitehead asked her about any possible connection between the two cases.

Roby, for his part, continues to deny that he did anything to the girls, who were 8 and 10 at the time.

His attorney, Kirk Bransfield, said his client had been a hardworking and productive citizen until the charges were leveled against him. And even as the case was pending and Roby remained free on bail, he continued to work as a research and development engineer.

Bransfield also pointed out that Roby has obeyed a court order to have no contact with the girls or their family while the case has been pending for more than five years.

Bransfield pointed to supporters in the courtroom, including Roby's wife, a daughter, a brother and his pastor, and urged the judge to impose no more than a three- to four-year prison term.

Hopwood, the prosecutor, urged the longer sentence, calling Roby's acts "brazen" and pointing to one incident in particular in which Roby was seen by a relative with one of the girls in a basement. The girl's top was off. But the relative did not take action, something Hopwood argued to jurors gave Roby "carte blanche" to continue abusing the girls in a household where the adults were more concerned about themselves and money than with the welfare and safety of the children.

Roby will get credit for about a year he spent in prison before he was granted a new trial in 2004.

When he is released, he'll be on probation for 10 years, with conditions that include registering as a sex offender and wearing a GPS bracelet, getting sex offender treatment and having no unsupervised contact with children under 16.