BARNSTABLE, Mass. (AP) – A sex offender, who raped a six-year-old boy at a Cape Cod hotel while he was still on probation for a prior conviction, has been sentenced to seven to nine years in prison. John Cox was already a registered sex offender when he assaulted the boy in the men’s bathroom at the hotel pool in May 2006. The boy’s family was visiting from Connecticut. The 40-year-old Cox was arrested a year later when his DNA was matched on a national database. He pleaded guilty on Friday. At the time of the rape, Cox was still on probation from a 1997 rape when he assaulted a young girl he lured into the boiler room of a Fitchburg community center.

He got five years in prison and 10 years of probation in that case.

Cox was classified as a Level 3 sex offender, considered the most likely to re-offend.

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Information from: Cape Cod Times, http://www.capecodonline.com

AP-ES-03-01-08 1805EST