Rhode Island man charged with raping 15-year-old girl

May 23, 2019 5:32 pm

By The Associated Press

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CONCORD, Mass. (AP) – A Rhode Island man faces charges after authorities say he traveled to Massachusetts to engage in a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl.

The Middlesex district attorney says 41-year-old Rocco Pelopida, of East Greenwich, was held on $25,000 bail after not guilty pleas to charges including aggravated statutory rape of a child were entered on his behalf at his arraignment Wednesday in Concord District Court.

He was arrested in Concord after the girl’s parents heard her leave home at about 3 a.m. and found her in the defendant’s car in town.

Prosecutors say the girl and the defendant met on a dating website and subsequently began corresponding over Snapchat, where they arranged the meeting.

Pelopida’s court-appointed attorney said in court his client did not know the girl’s age.