"East Coast Rapist" Sentenced to Life in Prison

MANASSAS, Va. (AP) — A Connecticut man who became known as the "East Coast Rapist" for a series of sexual assaults over more than a decade from Rhode Island to Virginia has been sentenced to life in prison.

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Credit Associated Press

The three life terms imposed Friday on Aaron Thomas of New Haven, Conn., followed his guilty plea last year in Manassas, Virgina for abducting three teenage trick-or-treaters and raping two of them on Halloween 2009 in Prince William County.

Those attacks were the last in a series of 17 assaults going back to 1997 that police linked by DNA evidence. Thomas was arrested in Connecticut in March 2011 after a multi-state law enforcement effort.

Authorities say Thomas was responsible for assaults in Maryland, Virginia, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.