Former Attleboro man gets 35-40 years in prison for raping 5-year-old niece

A former Attleboro man was sentenced to decades in state prison after he was convicted of raping a five-year-old girl back in 2022, prosecutors announced.

William Machado, 35, was sentenced to 35 to 40 years of state prison followed by 10 years of supervised probation in Fall River Superior Court on Friday, the office of Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn said in a press release Wednesday. 

Machado was convicted of two counts of rape of a child aggravated by a five-year age difference, two counts of rape of a child by force, assault to rape a child, indecent assault and battery on a person under 14, lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 16, and open and gross lewdness and attempt to commit a crime (drugging for sexual intercourse). 

Machado moved to Massachusetts from out of state in 2021 and lived with family members for several months, including the five-year-old victim, Quinn’s office said. 

In January of 2022, Machado’s sister went to check on her daughter in the middle of the night and noticed that her child’s bedroom door was closed, the DA said.

When the mother opened the door, she found Machado adjusting his clothing, the DA said. Machado claimed he was in the child’s bedroom because the child’s T.V. was too loud, prosecutors said. 

The sister noticed a potent smell of nail polish remover wafting in her daughter’s room, the DA said. The mother then spotted a surgical mask and an unknown solution, which was believed to be intended to render the victim unconscious, prosecutors wrote in a motion asking for Machado to be held without bail until his trial.

While approaching her sleeping daughter, the mother knocked over a storage container that had an unknown brown liquid that smelled like nail polish remover, the DA said. The container was not in the child’s bedroom prior to the interaction, Quinn’s office said. 

The sister yelled at Machado and told him to leave. The victim was taken to her mother’s bedroom for the night, the DA said.

Machado picked up the mask and the substance and left the victim’s home, Quinn’s office said.

Machado moved to Chicago after the confrontation and had no contact with his family for nearly six months, the motion reads.

During a July 2022 conversation between Machado and his sister, Machado expressed that he was sorry — for an unknown reason — and said he intended to die by suicide, prosecutors wrote. 

A month later, the victim began to tell her parents about the rapes, the DA said. 

Police interviewed the victim in September, when she spoke of “numerous acts of sexual abuse, terminating with the night on which her mother found the defendant in her room with the mask and what was believed to be a stupefying solution, at which time the defendant told her that when she woke up he would show her his private parts again,” prosecutors wrote.

The victim also testified that Machado “had touched her vaginal area and raped her by performing oral sex and by using an object”, the DA said.

Attleboro police were granted a warrant for Machado’s arrest and worked alongside US Marshals to locate him, prosecutors wrote. 

Investigators pinpointed Machado in Chicago through his financial transactions, the motion reads.

Machado was charged with being a fugitive in Cook County, Illinois, where he waived his extradition rights, and was transported back to Massachusetts to be arraigned, prosecutors wrote.

Machado was held without bail and pleaded not guilty to all charges, court documents show.

“The defendant repeatedly raped and molested a five-year-old family member simply because he had access to her. He engaged in depraved and disordered conduct that warranted a very lengthy sentence. I commend the victim for her courage in persevering through this extremely difficult ordeal,” Quinn said.

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