Sex Offender Arrested at Library

A Melrose resident registered as a sex offender was arrested on Monday, June 7 at the Melrose Public Library on a default warrant for failing to register as a sex offender in Boston, after library employees reported seeing a suspicious person frequent the library.

Melrose Police Lt. Mark DeCroteau said that one of the library directors came to the police station and said that Robert W. Cunningham, 39 Crescent Ave., Melrose, had been coming into the library, using the computers "quite often" and behaving suspiciously. A Melrose Police detective and officer responded to the library and after identifying Cunningham, 49, saw that he was wanted on a default warrant out of Dorchester District Court for failing to register as a sex offender in Boston.

"He was already registered (as a sex offender) in Melrose," DeCroteau said.

Cunningham was convicted in 1984 of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14-years-old, according to records available through the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which DeCroteau confirmed was the same man arrested last week at the Melrose Public Library. Cunningham was designated a Level 2 sex offender in 2006 by the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board.

According to the state Sex Offender Registry Board website, all sex offenders must register their current and new address at least 10 days prior to moving to a different city or town or within their current city or town. Offenders must also register a work or school address within 10 days prior to starting work or school.