In The News

Surf’s up for alleged rapist: He’ll work at dad’s shop to boost ‘self-esteem’
By Jessica Heslam and Laurel J. Sweet
Boston Herald
Tuesday, May 1, 2007 - Updated: 05:54 AM EST

A Marblehead teen accused of so brutally raping and terrorizing his ex-girlfriend that she played dead just to survive will spend part of his summer working in the sun and surf to boost his “self-esteem.”

Christopher “Hotdog” Houghton, 19, a surfing instructor who has been under house arrest since the alleged attack last December, will enjoy some smooth sailing as he awaits trial thanks to Salem Superior Court Judge Howard Whitehead, who last week agreed to spring him two days a week to help his father’s business, Houghton Marine Service.

“I’m being portrayed as a monster. I don’t think I am. I’m a 19-year-old kid that had a horrible night,” Houghton told the Herald yesterday.

“My ex-girlfriend . . . She meant everything to me and I messed up. I have complete remorse. I live in a confined misery every day.”

Houghton confirmed he was speaking about the night the victim, a 19-year-old Salem State College student, was allegedly raped and beaten in her home as her mother, a Boston nurse, was working a night shift. But he did not say he committed the crimes. Houghton is penning poetry to cope.

Whitehead reached his decision Friday after Houghton’s psychologist, John Shimer, persuaded Whitehead, “Granting Chris this privilege would be quite beneficial,” according to court records.

In addition, Dot Duda, director of the Prevention and Recovery Center at Mount Auburn Hospital, where Houghton has been undergoing treatment, assured Whitehead a summer job would be good for the accused rapist’s mental health.

“At this time, I strongly recommend that Christopher be allowed to work for his father, who will supervise him during the workday,” Duda wrote Whitehead. “Continued confinement to his house, in my opinion, will have a negative impact on his ability to work on developing new coping skills and self-esteem issues.”

Toni K. Troop, spokeswoman for Jane Doe Inc., the Massachusetts Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence, had this reaction yesterday to Houghton’s new lease on life: “Any changes in the condition of his release also needs to take into account whether the victim’s needs are being met. Where is her voice in this process?”

The woman declined to comment yesterday.

Steve O’Connell, spokesman for Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett, said, “We wanted (Houghton) confined.”

While Houghton allegedly choked the woman, punching walls and biting her face for going to dinner with the son of a family friend, the woman testified he hissed, “You did this to yourself.”

In transcripts of grand jury testimony contained in court files, the woman said that Houghton, whom she dated off and on since high school, reeked of rum and threatened to kill them both. She thought, “OK, this is what he’s actually going to do. This is how I’m going to die. So, I faked dead.”