Patrick Manluccia - Repeat Sex Offender - Habitual Pedophile Predator

The two men had him get undressed, showed him pictures of naked women, then took photographs of him, the 13-year-old boy told the Youth Bureau detective back in 1979.

They said they were going to sell the photos to someone in California, and said they would give the boy part of the money.

One day, however, the boy told police, the pair lured him to one of their apartments with the promise of a bicycle and stereo. This time, instead of taking pictures, one of them grabbed him from behind and pinned his arms. The second man began fondling him. The boy kicked one of his attackers in the groin and fled.

Had that incident occurred 10 years later, Patrick Manluccia's name would likely have appeared on the state's Sex Offender Registry, and the mother of another young boy who was allegedly molested by Manluccia in the past year would have been aware that her neighbor was a convicted pedophile.

But when state legislators established the registry in 1998, they directed police to list only those offenders who had served time in prison for sex-related crimes after October 1988, according to Connecticut State Police Lt. Sam Izzarelli, commander of the sex offender registry unit.

By then, Manluccia had long since completed his sentence for the 1979 case, so his name wasn't included.

On Sept. 25, Manluccia, now 69 and living on North Street, was again arrested by Youth Bureau detectives after a boy's mother accused him of sexually assaulting her son.

"My niece is very upset," the latest victim's great-aunt told The News-Times. "She feels like she's the only one that didn't know of his past. She feels like it's her fault, even though it's not."

The News-Times doesn't identify the victims of sexual assault. To protect the boy's identity, the newspaper is also not naming two relatives, his grandmother and great-aunt, who were interviewed for this story.

Last month, Manluccia pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree sexual assault, a single count of fourth-degree sexual assault and several counts of risk of injury. He remains in custody in Bridgeport Correctional Center on $1 million bond pending another court appearance on Tuesday.

Court documents indicate that on Sept. 18, a week before his arrest, the boy's mother asked Manluccia to baby-sit her son because she'd started a new job and none of her other sitters were available.

Manluccia regularly watched another neighbor's 10-year-old son, the mother said, and she was unaware that the man her son considered his "best friend" had a history of molesting children.

"I am very upset and angry .... He should be locked away forever," the mother said. "He was very good at tricking me and (my son) into believing he was a nice old man."

The mother told police she'd called Manluccia twice from work, and was "a little surprised" when he said her son had been "rolling in the grass," so he gave the boy a shower. That night, the boy, who'd been warned in the past to tell his mother if anyone "touched his private parts," told her Manluccia "checked him for bugs" after he bathed, she said.

Manluccia also told the boy "not to tell anyone what he'd done because people go to jail for that," according to the arrest warrant affidavit.

Although the boy's relatives told The News-Times the child was only assaulted once, the boy said Manluccia had checked him for bugs "lots of times," according to the affidavit.

"How come he wasn't put into the sex registry?" the great aunt asked. "Why was he allowed to live in a building with children living there? I understand he has rights, but he's been around children for years. There could be other victims."

In fact, Manluccia's record of offenses against children dates back long before 1979. Two years earlier, he had been convicted of two counts of risk of injury to a minor, and in 1964, he was convicted of three risk of injury counts, according to Danbury police.

Details of those earlier incidents were expunged from the public record years ago. The 1977 arrest occurred in Watertown, and police there said the department only keeps case records for 20 years.

It's a situation common to many departments, according to West Hartford Police Chief James Strillacci, head of the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association.

"Record space is finite. You can't go back to the beginning of time," he said.

But The News-Times was able to interview a former Danbury man who said he was involved in the 1964 case, which revolved around a "weightlifting club" that recruited seventh- and eighth-grade boys at St. Joseph's School.

"You had to understand the time frame," the former Danbury resident said. "We were so naive. None of us had this in our conscious, it just wasn't talked about."

There was no "weightlifting club,'" and there weren't even any weights, he said. There was, however, the bath house at the Town Park, where, the former resident said, Manluccia would run his fingers over a recruit's inner thigh, "checking for the vein" that would supposedly determine whether they could become a weightlifter.

"He would touch us on the inner thigh and tell us to cough," said the victim, now in his 50s and living out-of-state. "It was the initiation to see whether you could be a weightlifter, and you had to keep going through the initiation. It's hard to believe that we would fall for that, but it was a very confusing and awkward time."

As far as the victim knew, no one was actually fondled by Manluccia. But a refusal to undergo "the initiation" would result in threats that Manluccia's two pals -- muscular, hulking men who looked "like gorillas" to the young boys -- would beat them up, he said.

Eventually, one of the boys became so traumatized by the threats that he confided in one of the nuns at the school. The nun went to police and Manluccia was subsequently convicted of three risk of injury counts.

Danbury police also investigated a 2001 complaint filed by the mother of a 9-year-old boy who Manluccia allegedly tried to convince to undress at the Danbury Town Park. During that investigation, Manluccia told police he had "been framed" in the Watertown case, and the 1979 arrest "was a big mistake." He told the detective that the 13-year-old boy lied about the 1979 incident because of his own family problems.

Police eventually determined that no sexual contact had taken place in the 2001 case and Manluccia wasn't charged.

State Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, co-chair of the General Assembly's Judiciary Committee, said there was "nothing magic" about the 10-year look-back that was written into the sex offender law.

"It seemed like a workable number for the police that were going to manage (the registry), and that's what most other states were doing at the time," Lawlor said. "The further you go back, the harder it is to track these guys down."

Including those offenders who had completed their sentences before 1988 could have made compiling the list more difficult because of changes in the laws defining risk of injury and some sexual assault charges before then, he said.

Some people charged with risk of injury never had sexual contact with children.

"You could be charged with risk of injury for giving fireworks to a kid, or driving too fast with a child in your car," Lawlor said.

If he is convicted of the most recent charges. Manluccia would be required to register for life as a sex offender. But that's little consolation to the latest victim's family.

"I would like to see that this didn't happen to any other children," the boy's grandmother said. "It (the registry list) should be extended back even further."

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte