Crime & Safety
Man Traveling To East Providence To Have Sex With Teen Sentenced
Prosecutors said conversations mentioned several times that the boy was 15, but it turned out there was no boy. It was a sting operation.
PROVIDENCE, RI — A man already registered as a sex offender in Massachusetts was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in prison for traveling to East Providence to have sex with a 15-year-old boy.
Robert Eccleston, 57, of Fairhaven, Massachusetts was also sentenced to a lifetime of probation, federal prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty last September.
Prosecutors told the Associated Press Eccleston's defense was he responded to an online personal ad from someone who said they were 18.
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Prosecutors said the conversations mentioned several times that the boy was 15, but it turned out there was no boy. The investigation was an undercover operation by state detectives. In July 2016, Eccleston traveled to East Providence to meet who he thought was a teenage boy, but was met by police instead.
Prosecutors said Eccleston was a registered sex offender for a 2006 rape conviction.
Find out what's happening in East Providencefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Photo via Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry
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