Previously convicted child molester sentenced to prison on 18 counts of child molestation

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Attorney General Peter F. Neronha announced that a Warwick man has been sentenced today in Kent County Superior Court to serve 25 years at the Adult Correctional Institutions for committing multiple acts of child molestation against a single victim between 2012 and 2016.

80-year-old Bruce Macneil , pleaded nolo contendere to 10 counts of first-degree child molestation and eight counts of second-degree child molestation.

At today’s hearing before Superior Court Magistrate John F. McBurney, III, Macneil was sentenced to 40 years at the ACI, with 25 years to serve and the balance suspended with probation and is subject to community supervision. The court also issued a no contact order between Macneil and his victim.

Macneil is currently serving seven years at the ACI as a probation violator, where he has been held since July 2019. In 2016, Macneil was convicted of one count of second-degree child molestation and spent two years on home confinement before being released on probation.

Following Macneil’s conviction for child molestation in 2016, the victim in this case came forward to disclose the abuse by Macneil.

“The systemic abuse committed by the defendant over the span of many years makes this case particularly heartbreaking,” said Attorney General Neronha. “I am grateful for the victim’s courage in coming forward. The very lengthy sentence imposed on the defendant today is entirely warranted by the breadth of his criminal conduct against a child, which no words can adequately describe.”

Had the case proceeded to trial, the State was prepared to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that between 2012 and 2016, Macneil molested a boy who was known to him, on multiple occasions.

At the time the abuse began in 2012, Macneil was 72 years old and the victim was 11 years old. The abuse continued undisclosed for five years until 2016, when the victim was 15.

Detective Matthew Smith of the Warwick Police Department led the investigation. Special Assistant Attorney General Arthur DeFelice prosecuted the case on behalf of the Office of the Attorney General.