34-year-old Taunton man sentenced to prison in Fall River court for disturbing crimes against godson

A 34-year-old Taunton man pleaded guilty earlier this week in Fall River Superior Court to enticing and raping his 14-year-old godson, Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn announced.

James Robichau pleaded guilty on Tuesday to indictments charging him with Rape of a Child, Enticing a Child Under the Age of 16 and Intimidation of a Witness.

He was sentenced by Judge William White to serve eight to 12 years in state prison, to be followed by five years supervised probation.

In late 2021, the victim’s guardian noticed a series of sexually explicit text messages Robichau had sent to the victim’s phone between December 2020 and May 2021.

An ensuing investigation revealed that the victim’s father and Robichau were close friends. Robichau agreed to let the victim, his father and the woman who would later become the victim’s guardian stay in his home in Taunton because they were having trouble finding housing.  Just before officially moving into Robichau’s home, the victim slept over at Robichau’s house for a weekend.  During that weekend, the victim awoke to find that Robichau had pulled down his pants and was performing oral sex on him. 

Then while they were all living together at Robichau’s home, Robichau sent the victim numerous text messages requesting that the victim meet him in various rooms so he could perform oral sex on him again.  Once the guardian discovered the texts, Robichau texted the victim’s father a begged him to not contact the police.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Jose Vazquez.

“The defendant took advantage of his relationship with, and access to, the victim to sexually molest him.  I commend the victim for coming forward, which is the only way the defendant could be held accountable for this despicable abuse,” District Attorney Quinn said.