Former Lynn man admits to raping young cousins, receives 3-4 years

SALEM – A former Lynn man, who admitted raping and molesting two underage female cousins while staying at his uncle?s Lynn home three years ago, may serve up to four years in state prison before being placed on probation.John Patterson, 22, of 64 Jones St., Revere, changed his innocent plea to guilty Wednesday in Salem Superior Court to four counts of rape of a child as well as a single count of indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of 14.Patterson was sentenced to serve not less than three years and not more than four years in state prison to be followed by four years of probation at which time he must register as a sex offender, submit and complete sex offenders treatment and counseling as ordered by probation, have no unsupervised contact with children under the age of 16, except for his daughter, no contact with the two named victims in the case and must wear a GPS tracking device.Judge Timothy Q. Feeley agreed to adopt the sentence proposed by Assistant District Attorney Jessica M. Strasnick and defense lawyer John P. Morris.Strasnick said sometime between Nov. 1 and March 1, 2009, Patterson three times committed sexual assaults on the then-13-year-old girl and also committed a sexual assault on her then-10-year-old sister.The incidents came to light when police were called to the school last year after the now-teenage girl reported the incident to school officials. Following an investigation Patterson was charged in March of 2010.Patterson was indicted by an Essex County grand jury in May of 2010 and has been held in lieu of bail since being arraigned. The judge credited Patterson the 568 days he has spent in jail awaiting trial on the case.