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Woburn Sex Offender Back Behind Bars Following A Number Of Complaints

WOBURN (CBS) - Kevin Cronin has been convicted twice and spent nearly 20 years in prison for raping a teenager.

Even though his sentence is complete, it seems the world isn't ready to welcome the level three sex offender back. He returned to his Woburn home in January on probation with conditions and a GPS bracelet. Now, he's back behind bars after making several women uncomfortable.

This summer, police say Cronin approached two 18-year-old girls filling their car at a Woburn gas station.

He struck up a conversation, "…asking personal questions about where I live and where I go to school and how old I am," said Meghan Scalesse.

When the friend she was with later spotted him on the Sex Offender Registry, they went to police.

"If he was that comfortable approaching us, who knows if it were someone who wasn't 18, he would've acted on it," said Kayla Pope.

A clerk from a Burlington laundromat called police after he allegedly said some disturbing things to her.

"He asked if I did people's laundry in lieu of sex, in exchange for sex," she testified in court. "He continued to ask if single pretty women come in to do their laundry and clean their dirty panties."

Prosecutors say security guards at Grace Chapel in Lexington spotted him leering at women, following one around, asking her inappropriate questions. Police report similar complaints from women at churches in Winchester and Burlington.

Mary Flaherty, a friend of Cronin, points out that none of these incidents rises to the level of a crime. Cronin smiled as he listened to her testify in support of him.

"He is eager to have a life, have a life like a normal human being, so he is eager to talk to people. He's interested in people, gregarious, sort of like me," she explained.

The judge postponed a decision on whether to let Cronin go home. A hearing date has been set for later this month. Until then, he remains behind bars.

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