Woburn coach pleads guilty to raping underage player

WOBURN, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) -- A Woburn man recently pled guilty to raping a child, after he already had been found guilty by a jury of numerous other charges related to an underage female on the team he coached.

Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said that Jason Coughlin, 33, started a relationship outside of practice with the girl, who was 13 at the time. He was her coach for four years before that.

First their conversations, which included phone calls as well as texts, were related to basketball, but then were about becoming his girlfriend, Ryan said. The majority of the more than 13,000 texts the pair sent were sexual in nature.

He repeatedly told the victim to leave her house without telling anyone,  touched her inappropriately in a separate part of the gym during team practices, and continued to contact her after a harassment order had been placed against him.

In February, a jury found him guilty on multiple charges, including enticement of a child, dissemination of matter harmful to a minor, and violation of a harassment prevention order.

A judge sentenced Coughlin Thursday to five to seven years in prison on the rape charge, four-and-a-half to five years on the enticement charge, and 17 years probation on one of the other related charges.

When he is released from prison, Coughlin will have to register as a sex offender and submit to GPS monitoring, in addition to other restrictions.

Cox Media Group