Level 3 perv nabbed in hospital assault

By O’Ryan Johnson and Marie Szaniszlo
Friday, October 23, 2009 - Updated 3d 22h ago

A notorious Level 3 sex offender with more than a dozen sex crime charges on his record is being held without bail today after he tried to rape a woman at Massachusetts General Hospital yesterday, badly injuring her in the process, police said.

David Flavell, 40, who is homeless, was arraigned today in Boston Municipal Court for assault with intent to rape and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

The dangerous weapon, prosecutors said today, was the bathroom floor of a lady’s bathroom where Flavell slammed his victim’s head down on.

Police and sources said Flavell apparently followed a woman into the bathroom at the hospital and assaulted her. The victim was treated for her injuries in the emergency room.

The scenario was chillingly familiar.

Flavell was charged with accosting a woman after cops said he followed her into a bookstore restroom in Braintree in 2008 and blocked the door with a bookcase, but fled when the woman screamed for help. Police said he had a backpack with a ski mask and duct tape. The disposition of that case was not available last night.

In 2006, Bristol County prosecutors tried to have Flavell declared a sexually dangerous person. But Judge Richard T. Moses disagreed and allowed him to go free.

Not long after, Flavell was charged by Boston cops with making lewd calls to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in which he allegedly claimed to have repeatedly molested a little girl in 2007. The case was dismissed when a key witness backed out.

With more than 12 years of police reports to go by, psychiatrists have described Flavell as an exhibitionist. He has been arrested several times for exposing himself and masturbating in public. In Salem, N.H., he was bagged in a Kmart, where he was accused of pleasuring himself with children’s clothes in 1996. He got a suspended sentence.

David Flavell rap sheet

By Boston Herald archives
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - Added 4d 12h ago

March 14, 1996: David Flavell is spotted by a security guard urinating in a mop bucket at a Salem, N.H., Kmart, then masturbating on children’s clothing. Suspended sentence.

April 10, 1996: At a Salem, N.H., Bradlees department store, Flavell is caught on camera masturbating into a shirt on display. Suspended sentence.

June 24, 1996: Flavell masturbates in front of a New Hampshire supermarket.

July 9, 1996: Flavell masturbates in front of another store in New Hampshire. Served two months for both offenses.

Dec. 13, 1996: Methuen police arrest Flavell in the afternoon for masturbating in the ladies clothing section of a Rich’s department store, 5 yards from where a woman was shopping.

Dec. 13, 1996: Hours later, back on the street, Flavell beats up and attempts to rape a woman he chats up at a Methuen American Legion Post.

Nov. 6, 1997: He is arraigned in Lawrence on accusations of assault with intent to rape, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and two other charges. The following April, he pleads guilty and is sentenced to 2 1/2 years in the house of correction. He is released Jan. 18, 2000.

Dec. 8, 2000: Flavell is bagged again for masturbating at a Gap in Taunton.

April 13, 2001: Flavell exposes himself outside a Brooks Pharmacy in Fairhaven.

Sept. 4, 2001: Flavell flashes a woman and her four children in the parking lot of a Canton Gap. In November, he gets a nine-month sentence for Taunton, Fairhaven and Canton offenses.

October-November 2002: Flavell is hospitalized for psychiatric evaluation after he admits to calling unidentified ‘hotlines‘ from Franklin and Taunton, threatening to harm children.

March 19, 2003: Police in Salem, N.H., charge Flavell with disorderly conduct and making false public alarms after he tells them he followed a mother and her child into a store.

April 28, 2003: For violating probation on Salem offense, Flavell is committed to the Bristol House of Correction for 2 years.

Sept. 15, 2004: Bristol District Attorney Paul Walsh Jr. petitions to have Flavell civilly committed as a sexually dangerous person. Flavell is held over pending a ruling.

Feb. 14, 2006: Judge Richard T. Moses denies the petition after five medical experts testify Flavell is not sexually dangerous. Two other experts, however, disagree. Prosecutors ask Moses to reconsider his decision, but he refuses.

December 2006: Braintree police charge Flavell with making obscene phone calls to the Connecticut Child Protection Services hotline, but the case is later dismissed.

Aug. 31, 2007: Flavell is arraigned in Boston Municipal Court for allegedly making ‘lewd and disturbing’ calls to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children from pay phones at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Esplanade. The charges were dimissed in January when a critical witness backed out, but the case has been reopened and Flavell is scheduled to be arraigned in BMC again Wednesday.

Jan. 29, 2008: Carrying a backpack police suspect contained a ski mask, gloves and duct tape, Flavell allegedly follows a woman into the ladies room at the Braintree Borders after blocking the door with a bookcase and tries to crawl under her stall. He flees when she screams.

Feb. 20, 2008: Captured with the backpack Feb. 19 in a Brockton doughnut shop, Flavell, who claims to be homeless, pleads not guilty in Quincy District Court to accosting a person of the opposite sex and disorderly conduct. He remains held on $10,000 cash bail.

Oct. 22, 2009: Boston police charge Flavell with assault with intent to rape a woman in a Massachusetts General Hospital restroom.