Waterville man held in sex crime

WATERVILLE – A man with an extensive record of sex-related crimes was charged Wednesday with molesting a 13-year-old boy he recently had befriended.

Brian P. Moreau, a 32-year-old unemployed laborer, was charged with invasion of privacy and gross sexual assault, said Deputy Police Chief Joseph Massey. Moreau is being held in the Kennebec County jail in lieu of one piece of property worth $500,000 or $250,000 cash.

“He’s a predator,” Massey said Wednesday afternoon.

He said Moreau, whose record reveals at least four previous sex offenses, did not have to register as a sex offender because his last felony conviction occurred in 1988. Massey said Maine’s registration law applies only to crimes dating from 1992.

Police began investigating Moreau late Sunday afternoon, when someone at the Waterville Area Boys & Girls Club complained that a man had been taking pictures of boys showering.

Massey said an officer who was working at a public event at the North Street center responded and briefly questioned the suspect, later identified as Moreau. The suspect had no camera and denied wrongdoing.

Based on the initial statement from the witness and Moreau’s extensive record of sex crimes in Maine, detectives obtained a warrant to search Moreau’s home at 153 Western Ave. in Waterville, near the private Mount Merici School.

During a search Wednesday, detectives found evidence that Moreau had sex with a 13-year-old boy two weeks ago, Massey said, without elaborating.

The detectives also seized a computer they suspect may contain child pornography. The machine’s hard drive is being examined by the state’s computer crime task force in Lewiston.

In addition, Massey said Moreau acknowledged that he had photographed nude boys at the youth center with a digital camera. He also admitted to visiting the center at least twice before and to strolling through local elementary schools, Massey said.

“We asked him how he got in [to the youth center] and he said, ‘I walk in,”‘ Massey said. “We asked, ‘Have you ever been questioned?’ He said ‘no.”‘

In announcing Moreau’s arrest Wednesday afternoon, Massey released a copy of his criminal record that paints a picture of a man with a problem:

. In May 1987, Moreau was convicted of unlawful sexual contact, a Class C felony, in Oxford County Superior Court. He received a five-year sentence, suspended after just one year. After being released, he was charged with violating his four-year probation by committing a new sex crime.

. In November 1988, Moreau was convicted of gross sexual assault, a Class A felony, in Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland. He received a sentence of 15 years, suspended after eight years. Again, he twice was charged with violating a six-year probation by committing new sex crimes. Eventually, his probation was revoked.

Moreau spent most of the past decade either in jail or prison from those earlier crimes. Before Wednesday’s arrest, Moreau’s most recent offense happened in August 1999, when Bangor police charged him with fondling an 11-year-old girl.

“He approached this girl on Main Street, held onto her bike so she couldn’t get away, and stroked her hair,” police Lt. Bob Welch said Wednesday.

The girl escaped, told an adult what had happened and later identified Moreau, as he left a store, as her attacker, Welch said.

Moreau, whom Welch said had been finishing an earlier sentence at a pre-release center in Bangor, later served 364 days in the Down East Correctional Center in Bucks Harbor, according to his record.

Moreau is scheduled to appear in Waterville District Court to answer the latest charges on Jan. 10. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison.