Case of Quincy man charged with aggravated rape and kidnapping in court today

QUINCY − A Quincy man charged in connection with what authorities have called a “horrific” abduction, rape and assault will have a pretrial hearing today at Dedham Superior Court.

The defendant, Christian Lynch, 27, was indicted by a Norfolk County grand jury on 21 separate counts, including kidnapping, eight counts of aggravated rape and five counts of assault and battery on a person 60 or over. He has been detained since his arrest and is now held at the Norfolk County jail.

Items in the court docket suggest Lynch's attorney will argue that he cannot be held criminally responsible.

In May, the court received a mental health evaluation from Bridgewater State Hospital. The following month, Lynch's counsel filed a motion for funds supported by an affidavit related to criminal responsibility. These filings have been impounded by the court and are not accessible to the public.

The charges stem from the reported abduction of a 64-year-old woman on Nov. 12, 2022, as she walked to the Wollaston T Station during her morning commute to work.

Surveillance video from Wollaston Station shows a man, later identified as Lynch by police, get out of a Hyundai Genesis, seize a woman from behind and force her into the back seat. She can be seen kicking for about a minute before her assailant shuts her inside and leaves the station, court documents show.

In a court filing, Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth McLaughlin wrote that Wollaston Station video shows Lynch trying unsuccessfully to abduct another woman 10 minutes before forcing the second woman into his car.

Police found the woman that night in a Lowe’s parking lot at the Westgate Mall in Brockton with duct tape around her eyes and mouth and ligature marks around her wrists and ankles, according to court documents.

She told an interviewer that a man sexually assaulted her in his car after abducting her. He then took her to his Quincy residence, she said, where he detained her for 12 hours, raping and abusing her throughout the day.

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The woman told police that “she believed she was going to die,” according to court documents.

At a dangerousness hearing in Quincy District Court, McLaughlin said Lynch, after leaving the woman in Brockton, drove to Walmart in Quincy and bought a rug, a mattress, bedding and cleaning supplies.

A police report says Lynch told police after his arrest that he was tired of using online dating apps.

“This is me going out into the world getting a date,” Lynch reportedly told Quincy officers. During the interview, Lynch maintained that the encounter was consensual, court documents say.

McLaughlin said in a court filing that tests conducted at the Massachusetts Crime Lab have matched Lynch's DNA to DNA from the mouth of the woman. Further DNA analysis is not complete, McLaughlin wrote.

The incident prompted a community meeting in December 2022 where city officials and then-Police Chief Paul Keenan listened to residents' concerns.

At the meeting, Keenan called the incident “one of the most horrific events” he’d witnessed in over 40 years of police work.

Quincy police had arrested Lynch almost a month before the alleged abduction, saying he exposed his genitals to a woman at Nickerson Rock, formerly known as Squaw Rock Park, in Squantum.

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Christian Lynch, of Quincy, was charged with kidnapping, raping woman