Parole denied for 5th time: Holyoke child attacker remains behind bars
A man who's been incarcerated for 37 years after a pair of brutal attacks on young boys in Holyoke has been unanimously denied release for the fifth time by the Massachusetts Parole Board.
LaDale Strange, who is serving two concurrent life sentences with the possibility of parole, was denied after a review hearing in May.
Strange, at age 17, pleaded guilty in Hampden Superior Court in 1989 to two counts of rape of a child with force, three counts of kidnapping and two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. He first became eligible for parole in 2003.
The charges stemmed from three separate attacks in March and April 1988.
Strange raped an 8-year-old in the basement of a vacant apartment building at knifepoint in March 1988.
The following month, he lured another 8-year-old child into an alley in Holyoke and threatened the child with a gun, but then fled the scene when a noise startled him, allowing the child to escape.
The child provided Holyoke police with a description of the attacker.
Days later, he lured yet another young boy into the basement of an apartment building in Holyoke and beat the boy with a brick, knocking him unconscious and then abused them with a piece of window molding.
After Strange fled, a maintenance worker found the child, who suffered permanent, life-altering injuries.
Several community tips led police to Strange, who was detained for questioning on April 14, 1988. He admitted to all three crimes and was placed under arrest the same day.
Even though Strange has completed a sex offender program while incarcerated, the parole board continues to have concerns about his rehabilitation and the public's safety, considering the nature of the crimes.
"Given the sexual violence of the crimes committed against young victims, the Board continues to have concerns regarding Mr. Strange's likelihood of re-offending," the parole board wrote in its decision last month.
At a parole board hearing in May 2011, Strange said that he didn't think there was anything he could "do or say" to "ever deserve" parole, according to the Boston Herald.
"I just don't believe there's anything I could ever do," Strange said, the outlet reported.
A parole member at the time said that this was the "most disturbing and frightening case" she had ever seen and that she could barely read through case filings.
A prosecutor at the time called the assault "sadistic," according to the Herald.
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