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2 Men Plead Guilty To Raping Children In Western Mass In Separate Cases

Two Hampden County men who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting children in separate cases were sentenced to more than a decade in prison each, authorities said on Wednesday, May 22. 

Thomas Ciccolini, left, and Roberto Vasquez

Thomas Ciccolini, left, and Roberto Vasquez

Photo Credit: Hampden District Attorney

Thomas Ciccolini, 48, of Chicopee, admitted on May 9 to eight counts of aggravated rape of a child, two counts of posing a child in a sexual act, indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, and possession of child pornography, the Hampden District Attorney said. 

He was sentenced to 12 to 14 years in prison. The prosecutor asked for up to 18 years. 

Roberto Vasquez, 41, of Springfield, pleaded guilty on May 9 to six counts of aggravated rape of a child and indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, the prosecutor said. 

A judge sentenced him to 10 to 12 years behind bars. The district attorney had asked for a sentence of 20 to 25 years in prison. 

“Acts of abuse and violence on children will be met with our most meticulous efforts and the full force of the law," Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni said. "We will do all that we can to protect this community’s children and punish those who seek to harm them. I thank all the investigators for their work in these cases. Specifically, I would like to single out Assistant District Attorney Carrie Russell, a member of my office’s Special Victims Unit, for her skillful work and steadfast effort to secure justice for the victims in both of these cases.”

Ciccolini was accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old child he knew in Agawam for years before the victim's family moved away, the prosecutor said. 

Vasquez admitted to raping a 14-year-old child he knew in Holyoke, authorities said. When he learned police were investigating him for the sexual assault, Vasquez fled to Florida, where he was later arrested. 

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