Convicted rapist sentenced after 30 years on the run

DEDHAM, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com/AP) — A man convicted of raping three women in Massachusetts was sentenced Thursday, more than three decades after he fled the state and began living a secret life in Maine.

Gary Alan Irving was sentenced to serve two consecutive 18- to 20-year prison sentences in Norfolk Superior Court. Prosecutors recommended Irving receive between 40 and 50 years for his crimes.

The 52-year-old's sentence was announced after emotional victim statements were read. One victim says the memory of that day has haunted her for 34 years. She asked the judge not to make the same mistake the judge made in 1979 when Irving was allowed to return home prior to sentencing and fled.

Irving's attorney argued that his client led a productive life after his escape, saying he did not commit more crimes and had a positive impact on the lives of others.

The judge ultimately said they consider Irving dangerous individual, calling him a "leopard whose spots we cannot be sure have changed."

Irving, who lived in Rockland, was teenager when he was convicted of raping three women. He was on the Massachusetts' Top 10 Most Wanted list for decades. When authorities finally caught up with him in Maine in March, he was a 52-year-old man with a wife and two grown children. In one statement read Thursday, one victim said she missed out on having a family of her own because of Irving.

Cox Media Group