Ex-Boston area police lieutenant pleads guilty to rape of a child

BOSTON — A former Winthrop police lieutenant pleaded guilty to raping and abusing an 11-year-old child over the course of a year in Suffolk Superior Court on Monday.

“I am pleading guilty for the very vile acts I committed,” James Feeley stated on the stand Monday, asked to tell the court why he was there in his own words.

Feeley, 57, changed his plea Monday, having pleaded not guilty in March. He will face four to six years in prison and five years on probation on seven counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 and one count of rape and abuse of a child — reduced Monday from aggravated child rape — a Suffolk Superior Court judge ruled.

The sexual abuse came to light after the 11-year-old victim told an adult on Christmas Day in 2023, prosecutors said. Following a confrontation in the home, Feeley went to the Winthrop’s Belle Isle Cemetery near his parents’ graves reportedly “in a bad way” where he called Winthrop Police Chief Terance Delehanty and was confronted by several police.

In the cemetery, Delehanty reported he believed Feeley was suicidal and armed with a handgun. He made “numerous admissions” about the sexual abuse before he was arrested, the prosecution said.

In confessions to his wife, the Winthrop Police chief and other investigators, Feeley admitted he sexually assaulted the child about “five to six times” in his home between August 2022 and December 2023, according to court records.

The prosecution recounted graphic details from the victim’s interviews about the abuse in court Monday, which Feeley was asked to acknowledge and admit to. The girl declined to give a victim impact statement at the plea hearing. Feeley’s wife, who was present on Zoom, was also asked and declined to give a statement Monday.

Feeley was solemn and used contrite language admitting to the sexual abuse in court on Monday. His family, friends and reverend wrote glowing letters on the defendant’s behalf, calling the abuse “uncharacteristic” and “incomprehensible to all of us that know him.”

“I understand the gravity of his actions and the pain he has caused (the victim) and our family,” wrote the defendant’s wife Andrea Feeley in a letter to the judge, stating her husband will never return to their marriage or household or have contact with her children. “I am in no way excusing or justifying his behavior, but I believe he is capable of change and rehabilitation.”

The former cop was ordered in court to register as a sex offender, submit a DNA sample, undergo sex offender treatment and have no contact with the victim as conditions of his guilty plea.

The judge said the guilty plea is a step for the family to move “towards healing” but there is a “long journey ahead.”

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