Marc Alberi, a registered sex offender formerly of Norway, was arrested Monday at his home in Newport and charged with taking photos of a boy in a public bathroom at the Wal-Mart in Palmyra on Sunday, state police said.

Alberi, 46, is charged with possessing sexually explicit material of a child under the age of 12.

According to a news release from Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, investigators said Alberi used his cellphone to take photos of an 11-year-old boy at the urinal in the bathroom at Wal-Mart. The boy reported the incident, and the store’s security team identified Alberi, the release stated.

State police interviewed Alberi later that day and the State Police Computer crimes unit seized his cellphone and laptop computer, McCausland said.

Alberi was arrested Monday and taken to the Penobscot County Jail in Bangor.

Alberi has eight sex-related convictions and is required to register with the Maine Sex Offender Registry for the rest of his life, McCausland said.

Alberi was convicted of five counts of unlawful sexual contact and three counts of gross sexual assault in 1998 when he was living in Norway. One of the convictions was for raping a 12-year-old boy in 1995.

Seven other counts of sexual misconduct were dismissed as part of a plea deal.

In 1998, Alberi was sentenced in Oxford County Superior Court in Paris to 12 years in prison, with all but five years suspended. He was also given six years of probation, with the condition that he undergo sexual abuse counseling upon his release.

He eventually served two years in prison.

At the time the crimes were committed, Alberi was a community leader in Norway who coached sports teams and organized camping trips for local youth. During his sentencing, he tearfully told the court he had been molested when he was 13 years old by a college student who was not a member of the family. The abuse greatly affected him, he said, and he didn’t want to risk public exposure by seeking counseling.

Alberi also told the court that he didn’t think he was hurting anybody when molesting the boys, who he said he “loved.”

According to prosecutors, Alberi’s tactic had been to buy expensive gifts and toys for his victims and allow them to “work off” the cost of the items by spending time with him, including staying in his home overnight.

In 2008, Alberi’s sister, Michele Alberi Eshleman, released a book inspired by her experience during her brother’s trial and incarceration titled “Reaching Out From the Inside.” The book took her five years to write, she said, and dealt with her pain, grief and spiritual healing after his brother’s arrest.

That book, written under the pen name Michele Lewis, was the first of three on the subject.

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