By News staff
FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) -- A convicted sex offender from Westport has been sent to prison for up to 35 years for raping a child over a number of years starting when she was 12 years old.
Edward Pacheco Jr. was sentenced Monday in Fall River Superior Court to 25 to 35 years in prison and 40 years of probation. The 42-year-old Pacheco was found guilty in September of charges including statutory rape and rape of a child by force.
Pacheco was a friend of the victim's family.
The Herald News (http://bit.ly/RukgnR ) reports that Judge D. Lloyd Macdonald said Pacheco "must be separated from society for a significant number of years, to protect other children."
Pacheco had been previously convicted of child rape in a separate case.