Rapist Escapes From Massachusetts Facility

A man has escaped the state treatment center for sex offenders where he was committed 19 years ago after being charged with child rape, officials said Monday.

John McIntyre apparently left the building through a second-story window, lowered himself by an electrical cord or wire, and then scaled an 18-foot perimeter fence topped with razor wire, Correction Commissioner Michael Maloney said.

McIntyre is considered a serious threat to the public.

“The court has found him to be sexually dangerous and committed him to ... life in prison. I would consider him dangerous, yes,” Maloney said.

Department of Correction spokesman Justin Latini said McIntyre, 40, was committed to the treatment center in November 1984.

He was committed indefinitely in lieu of a criminal conviction. McIntyre had been charged with crimes including indecent assault and battery on a child, rape and abuse of a child, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, kidnapping and larceny.

McIntyre was housed in the Community Transition House in Bridgewater, which gives residents an opportunity to live under less restrictive conditions while engaging in treatment.

Maloney said McIntyre was one of only five inmates selected for the program. He said McIntyre was a “good inmate,” and he knew of no previous escape attempts.

McIntyre was present for an inmate count at 9:30 p.m. Sunday and was reported missing about 11 p.m., Maloney said. There was no indication he received outside assistance.

After the escape was discovered, correction officials notified police in the areas where McIntyre once lived and where his victims live, Latini said.

Escape posts were set up in Bridgewater to look for McIntyre, and more than 900 residents were notified Monday by an automated telephone calling system.

The treatment center has come under scrutiny because of its past release of several men who were later accused of murder.

It is the same facility that treated Paul Nolin, who has been accused of the murder of 20-year-old Jonathan Wessner, whose body was found this month buried under rocks on a beach.