New Bedford Men Sentenced For Rape of 9-Year-Old Girl

NEW BEDFORD (WBSM) — Two New Bedford men have been sentenced to prison for raping and molesting a 9-year-old girl in their Nye Street apartment.

Nicholas Pacheco, 41, was convicted of two counts of aggravated rape and abuse of a child with at least a five-year age difference. Pacheco’s housemate, Braulio Castro, 37, was convicted of forcible rape of a child.

Pacheco was sentenced to serve 10 to 15 years in state prison, while Castro was sentenced to eight to 12 years in prison.

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During the trial, evidence showed that the girl, who is now a teenager, was raped twice by Pacheco and once by Castro, according to the Bristol County District Attorney's Office.

All three incidents occurred between February 2015 and February 2017 when the girl was 9 and 10 years old, the DA's Office said.

The young victim had also been molested by two other men during her childhood.

In 2021, the victim was also abused by Mario Suy from New Bedford, which led her to tell Bristol County Children’s Advocacy Center investigators about her abuse. Suy, now 27, was convicted after a trial last April in New Bedford District Court of two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of 14. He was sentenced to the county jail in addition to a lengthy probation stint.

The first person alleged to have sexually assaulted the child, when she was 7, was her great-uncle, Mario Diaz, who was indicted for rape of a child by a grand jury. Diaz was deported prior to a trial.

Pacheco and Castro are not citizens of the United States and will likely be deported upon completion of their state prison sentences, according to the DA.