DOVER, N.H. (AP) – A jury on Friday convicted a former state trooper of sexual assaulting a 13-year-old boy.
The jury deliberated about 2 hours before convicting Henry Bird, 70, following the four-day trial. Bird testified Thursday he realized immediately he’d done something terrible when he starting massaging the boy, of Barrington.
Bird, head of security for former Gov. Meldrim Thomson and former chief of police at Plymouth State University, has admitted inappropriately touching the boy, whom he met in a Big Brothers Big Sisters program. But he and his lawyer, Lincoln Soldati, did not believe his crime fits the aggravated felonious sexual assault charge against him. Bird described more than two years he spent time with the boy, now 15, after they were matched through a Big Brothers Big Sisters program.
Bird said he took the teenager fishing and introduced him to University of New Hampshire hockey.
The night of the alleged assault, Bird had arranged the boy to spend the night at his home because the two planned to attend a women’s hockey game together. When the boy complained of a head and backache, Bird offered a massage with a vibrating massager.
Bird testified as the boy drifted off to sleep, he set the massager down on the bed and left the room, but returned when he heard the device being turned on again.
“My curiosity got the best of me,” he said.
Bird said he gasped when he saw the boy using the massager. But instead of turning it off, he took over and began using his saliva and the massager to help the boy – stopping only after realizing “what a terrible thing” he was doing.
The boy previously testified Bird entered his room while he slept, undressed him and assaulted him. He testified he awoke, but was too shocked to push Bird away or even let him know that he was awake. Instead, he moved around as if his sleep had been disturbed, and Bird stopped, got dressed and left.
State laboratory analysts testified they found Bird’s saliva on the boy’s pants. They said also that DNA samples found on the massager matched Bird’s.
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