NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) – A librarian who recognized a convicted sex offender at a New Bedford library says she tried to scare him off by frequently walking into the room where he was talking to a young boy.

Eileen Michaud said Wednesday in a court hearing that she later overheard the boy’s mother admonish the child about never talking to strangers. But it may have been too late.

Authorities say convicted sex offender Corey Saunders raped the 6-year-old boy on Jan. 30, in between the shelves of a magazine room while the boy’s mother worked on a computer just outside the room.

The librarian testified at a probation violation hearing for Saunders, who served four years in prison for attempting to rape a 7-year-old boy in 1999.

Michaud said she became concerned the minute she saw Saunders talking to the boy in the magazine room.

Defense attorney Alan Zwirblis asked Michaud how she knew Sauders was a sex offender.

She said another librarian had seen his photo on the state’s Sex Offender Registry Board’s Web site and told others on the staff.

Michaud said she kept walking in and out of the room, just to let Saunders know she was watching him.

Minutes later, after the boy’s mother came into the room and saw her son talking to Saunders, Michaud said, she heard the mother scold the boy.

“She became very upset and said, ‘Why are you talking to that man? I told you never to talk to strangers,'” Michaud said. “I told her that she needed to find out what he was talking to him about because he was a sex offender.”

Michaud said as the mother questioned her son, she became “more and more agitated,” then told her to call 911.

Police Detective Alberto Silva testified that the boy told his mother that a man in the library had touched him. Silva said that when he showed the boy a photograph of Saunders, the boy said, “That’s him. That’s the guy.”

Saunders, 26, was arrested that night outside a homeless shelter.

The hearing was scheduled to continue Thursday, when prosecutors plan to play a videotaped interview of the boy conducted the day after the alleged rape. Judge Robert Kane said he would order the news media not to show images of the boy and to distort his voice.

But Zwierlbis said he objects to the dissemination of the interview, which he said would hurt his client’s chance of getting a fair trial. He said he already is concerned about the level of media attention the case has received.

Michaud said Saunders was a frequent visitor to the library and often used computers just outside the magazine room. She said she once saw him looking at a Web site that appeared to show young boys. When she told him it was inappropriate for him to view the Web site on the library’s computer, he became “agitated,” Michaud said.

Saunders is being held in jail as he awaits trial in the New Bedford case. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of rape of a child by force, indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 and enticing a child.

AP-ES-04-02-08 1734EDT