LAWRENCE, Mass. (AP) – A 72-year-old man who admitted to raping two Salem boys served time in a Maine prison for the same crime, according to Massachusetts authorities who said they were not warned by Maine police that Edward Lapanne was a “high risk” sex offender.

Lapanne, of Salem, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Lawrence Superior Court to raping the two brothers, then 3 and 6, while his girlfriend was baby-sitting them in 2001 and 2002. He was sentenced to seven years in prison.

In 1986, Lapanne was sentenced to eight years in a Maine prison for raping children between the ages of 5 and 11, Massachusetts authorities said.

In Maine, however, the Department of Corrections said it had no record of Lapanne serving time in a state prison.

He was designated a high risk sex offender after his parole, but local police say they didn’t learn about this until after his arrest in the Salem case in 2002. They said Maine authorities never entered his previous record into the state and national database of criminal offenders.

His former girlfriend also said she was unaware of Lapanne’s past.

The boys’ parents told The Salem News they weren’t happy with the sentence, but could live with it, given Lapanne’s age and poor health. Lapanne recently had prostate surgery and suffers from diabetes and severe high blood pressure, his lawyer said.

AP-ES-04-23-04 1440EDT