Woonsocket Man Indicted for Alleged Child Molestation

WOONSOCKET, R.I.—A 64-year-old city man has been indicted by the Providence County Grand Jury and charged with five counts of child molestation.

Joao Araujo, 64, of 27 Vivian St., Woonsocket, was arrested by Woonsocket police in July and has been on home confinement after being released from the Adult Correctional Institutions on cash bail in August.

Araujo was indicted on Wednesday by the Providence County Grand Jury and charged with two counts of first-degree child molestation and three counts of second-degree child molestation.

Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin said in a news release that Araujo is accused of molesting two girls under 14 between June 1 and Sept. 1 of 2015.

The alleged molestations happened in Woonsocket.

Araujo is due to be arraigned in Providence County Superior Court on Feb. 3.

Court records show that Araujo has no prior record in Rhode Island.

In 2012, he received a permit from the town of Cumberland to sell fresh fish from a truck near Town Hall under the business name Luzitania Seafood.

City records show that Araujo applied for a dimensional variance from the Woonsocket Zoning Board of Review to erect a fence in his backyard to keep two goats in 2009.

Photo: Araujo appears at a Cumberland Town Council meeting in 2012. Photo via Town of Cumberland official meeting recording.