Man who fled to Florida after raping young girl, 8, found guilty
A man who police said had fled to Florida after raping an 8-yearold girl and then taunted the family that he was hiding “in paradise” and will never be found was found guilty of raping the girl.
Scott McCaffrey, 56, variously reported as being from Abington or South Weymouth, was found guilty Wednesday after a four-day trial in Plymouth Superior Court of five counts of aggravated rape of a child, four counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 and one count each of dissemination of harmful matter to a minor and lewd, wanton and lascivious conduct.
The 8-year-old girl had reported to the Plymouth County District Attorney’s office in January 2020 that McCaffrey sexually assaulted her on “numerous occasions,” in the words of the DA’s office, in 2014 and 2015. Abington Police investigated the claim and issued a warrant for McCaffrey’s arrest.
Plymouth Superior Court clerk officers were unable to find his court records, which would have provided further details of his crimes, when requested by the Herald Thursday.
Abington police alerted the police department in Stuart, Florida
— the small city on the state’s southeast coast McCaffrey had allegedly termed his “paradise” in the taunting messages police contend he sent the family — were alerted to his possible presence there on March 10, 2020.
The next day, members of the Stuart Police Department found McCaffrey living on a yacht there, boarded the vessel and arrested him, according to a statement they released following his arrest.
“Scott McCaffrey’s paradise found turned into paradise lost in a very short amount of time,” the Stuart Police Department wrote in their statement following his arrest there. “All of us consider the City of Stuart paradise and we would like to thank the Abington Police Department for helping us keep it that way.”