Christopher Blanks - Repeat Sex Offender - Baby Raping Pedophile

• Conviction date: 3/26/1998
• Sexual Abuse-1st Degree
• Offender's age at conviction: 27
• Victim Age: 4

A Norwich man who had been convicted of a sexual crime in 1998 in New York has been charged with sexually assaulting a child for whom he babysat.

Christopher Blanks, 37, is accused of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl in Norwich in September 2007. He met the child and her 5-year-old brother through his former girlfriend, who is friends with the victim's mother, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. The girl told her mother Blanks had sexually assaulted her but begged the mother not to notify police, according to the affidavit.

The mother finally went to police after Blanks' girlfriend told her she had discovered pictures of Blanks sexually assaulting the girl on their computer. There were also pictures of the 5-year-old brother.

Blanks, whose last known address is at 23 Hunters Ave, is charged with first-degree sexual assault, fourth-degree sexual assault and four counts of risk of injury to a minor. He was convicted of first-degree sexual assault in New York in 1998 and is a registered sex offender. Norwich police charged him in 2005 with failure to update his address with the Department of Public Safety on four occassions. He also had been convicted in 1999 in New York for failing to register as a sex offender.

He is being held on $352,500 bond at the Corrigan Correctional Institution. During a court appearance Monday in New London, Judge Susan B. Handy appointed public defender Bruce A. Sturman to represent Blanks and continued his case to Dec. 23.

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

.........Sarah Tofte