Mistrial over jury deadlock in rape of former New Hampshire youth center worker

CONCORD, New Hampshire — A mistrial was declared Tuesday in the first criminal trial in New Hampshire’s child molestation scandal, following a jury deadlock in the case of a former juvenile detention center employee accused of raping a teenage girl.

Victor Malavet, 62, was one of nine men charged in a five-year investigation into allegations of abuse at the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester, although unlike the others, he worked at a separate, state-run facility in Concord.

After a four-day trial and about 11 hours of deliberations spread over three days, the jury found it was unable to reach a decision on 12 counts of aggravated sexual assault, and the judge declared a mistrial.

Malavet was accused of assaulting a resident of a juvenile detention center where children were being held while their cases were pending in court.

Natasha Maunsell, who was 15 and 16 when she was held at the facility in 2001 and 2002, testified that Malavet often met her alone in a candy store, a laundry room and other locations, where he repeatedly raped her.

Malavet’s attorneys argued that Maunsell made up the allegations to extract money from the lawsuit.

Malavet did not testify, and his lawyers did not call any witnesses in his defense. But jurors heard him deny the allegations Thursday during testimony from a state police officer who was authorized to secretly record her April 2021 interview with him.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Maunsell did. She is one of more than 1,100 former youth detention center residents suing the state over allegations of abuse spanning six decades.