A 63-year-old man who is being charged with se*xual assault allegedly raped a young girl in foster care thousands of times over 11 years and got her pregnant when she was a teenager.
Court records show Roger Barriault is charged with first-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a child. He was arrested on Jan. 26 and posted a $200,000 bond.
According to Barriault’s arrest warrant cited by Connecticut Insider, the victim and Barriault met in 2004 when she was living with another family in foster care. She alleges he started assaulting her soon after that. Then, she reportedly went under his care, where the rapes allegedly occurred daily. The victim reportedly said she believes she was assaulted by Barriault 4,000 times.
The Connecticut Department of Children and Families told the Connecticut Insider that Barriault and his wife are not foster parents and that their department did not place the victim in his care.
The statement said, “The Barriaults were never licensed to care for her, nor did they act in the capacity as her foster parents. The family received guardianship of the victim via the Probate Court as a child.”
NBC Connecticut reports the assaults occurred until 2015 when she was 20 years old. She reportedly got pregnant with his child when she was 13 years old.
According to the Connecticut Insider, Barriault was arrested in 2007 for alleged sexual misconduct, but the charges were later dropped. The victim reportedly moved out of his house until the case was dismissed, but when she went back, he allegedly continued to assault her.
The victim reportedly said Barriault’s wife was in the same house when he allegedly raped her regularly.
The victim’s attorney, Nate Baber, told NBC Connecticut, “She fell through the cracks. She fell through canyons. The lack of oversight and awareness and supervision of this child who was in foster care, at at least one point, is so alarming that it begs a complete investigation by DCF and anyone involved in it as to how this could have happened.”
DCF Commissioner Vannessa Dorantes said about the allegations, “There’s limited information that I can share, but what I can share unequivocally is that the department did not place this child in this home.”
