NASHUA – The former Hudson man who admitted to molesting a now 16-year-old girl for four years and then stalking her on Twitter while free on bail was sentenced to up to eight years in prison on Thursday – but not before the girl and her family got their say.

Edmund Mallett, 48, formerly of Hudson and Tewksbury, Mass., pleaded guilty to pattern aggravated felonious sexual assault, attempted felonious sexual assault and a host of stalking charges at Hillsborough County Superior Court in Nashua. Judge Charles Temple sentenced him to 31?2 to eight years in prison on the aggravated charge.

The victim, her parents and even his now former wife excoriated Mallett
while he sat at the defense table in silence, staring straight ahead.

“What do you say to the man who sexually abused your child?” the victim’s father said. “Words cannot accurately describe the disgust and hate I have toward you.”

Mallett admitted to sexually assaulting the girl repeatedly beginning when she was 12 and was one of several children in a tightly knit neighborhood in Hudson. Several of the families in the neighborhood trusted Mallett, the family said, and allowed their children to visit his home.

But Mallett took advantage of that trust, Assistant County Attorney Catherine Devine said, and developed a fantasy that he was in love with the victim.

The victim, reading a statement she had written earlier, said the manipulation started far before the abuse. For years, he repeated he was in love with her and her with him. It wasn’t until she was older and fell in love with a boy her own age she began to realize something was wrong, she said.

“I realize I shouldn’t be in love with an old man,” she said Thursday. “I should be falling in love with someone my own age. You completely stole my innocence.”

The girl finally disclosed the abuse to her parents in January after Mallett, confiding in the victim’s best friend, said he would kill himself if he couldn’t be with her, Devine said.

“I felt like dying,” the girl said. “I had never seen my parents so upset. I was sick to my stomach.”

Devine filed more than 40 stalking and breach of bail conditions over messages Mallett posted using Twitter that Devine said were clearly attempts to communicate with the young victim.

On Thursday, Mallett pleaded guilty to several –
though far fewer than 40 – stalking counts that included messages that specifically mentioned the victim or her friend.

Temple sentenced him to a year in jail for each of the charges, to be served at the same time as his prison term.

The messages were a “gift,” the victim’s father said. They showed his “twisted, disturbing, juvenile mind,” and allowed prosecutors to revoke his bail and send him to jail.

Mallett’s ex-wife, Diane Mallett, spoke at the hearing and said her life was “flipped upside down” when she learned Mallett had been arrested.

“All the signs I should have seen but didn’t fills me inside with guilt,” she said. “I was unable to protect the children who entered my home.

“For that, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t protect the victims.”

The victim’s mother said her daughter’s therapist told her she displays all of the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. She has trouble eating and sleeping and is anxious much of the time.

“Delusional just isn’t a strong enough word for him,” she said. “He is pure scum. He is a small, pathetic excuse of a man.”

Mallett, wearing glasses, a black button-down shirt and jeans, didn’t look at any of the speakers. He said nothing during the hearing except to answer Temple’s procedural questions with a word or two.

His sentence, which came as part of a negotiated plea, requires him to complete sex offender treatment while in prison and to register as a juvenile sex offender.

In addition to the maximum eight years in prison he is serving now, an additional sentence of 31?2 to seven years will be suspended for 10 years once he is released.

He will be allowed no unsupervised contact with anyone younger than 16 except family members, and will also have to stay at least 100 feet away from schools and other places children congregate, according to the terms of his sentence.

Temple declined to add anything after the victim and her family had spoken except his hope Mallett was listening well.

“I hope the words that were said today by those people ring in your head as you serve these sentences,” Temple said. “I truly hope when you come out of that prison … there will be two changed lives: (the victim’s) and yours.”

While she admitted the last year has been unimaginably difficult, the victim ended her statement positively.

While her grades suffered, they’re getting better now. She plays sports and is closer than ever with the best friend Mallett confided in.

She said she’s also determined to move on.

“I will not allow you to ruin the rest of my life,” she said. “You will not stop me from reaching my goals. Today is a new beginning for my best friend and I.”

Joseph G. Cote can be reached at 594-6415 or jcote@nashua
telegraph.com. Also, follow Cote
on Twitter (@Telegraph_JoeC).