Rapist released from prison charged with new rape after cutting off monitoring bracelet

A convicted Massachusetts rapist, who was out on probation after serving 8 to 9 years imprisonment for a previous rape, was charged with raping another woman last Thursday evening at about 11:30 PM local time. 29 year old William French had been released June 24 to his grandparents' custody in Framingham, MA for what was supposed to have been 6 years of parole, which he immediately violated January 4. Middlesex Superior Court Judge Howard Whitehead could have sent French back to prison, but ordered him to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet during a February 16 hearing.

The terms of French’s six-year probation require him to stay drug- and alcohol-free, submit to random drug screens, undergo sex offender treatment and have no contact with the victim.

In the prior rape case, French told the victim he had a gun and threatened to kill her and her 13-year-old daughter, who was sleeping in another room, if she did not comply, court records show. French’s record also includes a string of prior arrests for larceny, assault, threats, and burglary.

On Thursday at about 11:25 p.m., probation officials received an alert indicating that French had removed the GPS monitor from his leg, and an arrest warrant was issued at 11:45 p.m., the DA’s office said.

French was arrested early Friday morning, while the victim was treated and released from a local hospital. He was arraigned in Framingham District Court Friday afternoon by Judge Sara Singer and charged with the following - 2 counts of aggravated rape, kidnapping, assault and battery, unarmed robbery, threats to commit a crime, and removing the GPS monitoring device. He is currently being held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing scheduled February 25.