EIGHTEEN YEARS IN PRISON FOR PEDOPHILE FOR SEXUALLY ABUSING A SIX YEAR OLD BOY IN A RITE AID DRUG STORE

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that a 36 year old Bronx man with a long history of sexually abusing young children, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for molesting a six year old boy last Spring.

Vinerio Franceschini, of 890 Garrison Avenue, the Bronx, pled guilty on November 5, 2004 to four counts of Sexual Abuse in the 1st degree, for molesting a six year old boy in a Rite Aid drug store last May.

Acting State Supreme Court Justice Steven Barrett sentenced Franceschini to consecutive terms of fourteen years imprisonment for the sexual abuse of the six year old boy, and four years imprisonment for violating probation in connection with an unrelated conviction in 2003 for Attempted Sexual Abuse in the 1st degree. In that case, Franceschini was sentenced to ten years probation for trying to abuse a seven year old girl. Judge Barrett sentenced Franceschini to serve a total of eighteen years imprisonment. The defendant was sentenced as a “second child sexual assault felony offender” which under Megan’s Law provides for stiffer penalties for sexual predators. Franceschini was also convicted in 1991 of sexually abusing a seven year old boy who was his next door neighbor. Franceschini received six months in jail and five years probation for that crime.

Franceschini’s most recent crime occurred in the middle of the afternoon on May 13, 2004 in a Rite Aid Drug Store at 950 Southern Boulevard in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx. The young victim was in the store with his grandmother and was accosted when he wandered off to another aisle to look at toys. The defendant placed his hands inside the child’s pants and underwear and fondled him before pulling down the garments and placing his mouth on the boy’s buttocks. Surveillance equipment in the store recorded the incident.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Johanna Hernandez.