Former St. Luke’s Hospital doctor convicted of child rape

A former doctor at St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford was convicted Tuesday of raping a teenager in 2018, officials said.

A Fall River Superior Court jury found Sujan Kayastha, 42, of Dartmouth, guilty of charges of age-aggravated rape of a child, electronic enticement of a child for commercial sexual purposes, possession of child pornography, posing in the nude, and sending lewd remarks to a child, according to the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors said Kayastha met the boy, who was 14 at the time, online in September 2018 and later exchanged nude photographs and videos with the teen. In December 2018, the former doctor drove the boy, who was living in a group home in Attleboro, to a motel in Seekonk where he paid the teen $200 to engage in a sex act.

According to the prosecutor’s office, a staff member at the boys’ group home contacted police when she suspected the teen was being sexually exploited.

“The defendant was found guilty of extremely disturbing and insane conduct involving a very vulnerable fourteen-year-old boy,” Bristol District Attorney Thomas Quinn said in a statement. “He preyed on the victim by exchanging pornographic photos, which led the defendant to rape the victim in a motel. The sentence imposed by the court was well deserved.

Kayastha was sentenced immediately after his sentencing to 12 years in state prison, followed by five years of supervised probation upon his release.