Global Courant
Lori Pinkham, the first alleged victim in the case of Boston rape suspect Matthew Nilo, has condemned Nilo’s release on bail after coming out in an exclusive interview with ABC News about the alleged 2007 attack.
“I can’t believe he’s back on the streets and I’m also afraid he’s going to try to get revenge on me,” Pinkham said in a statement.
Nilo is accused of raping three women and sexually assaulting a fourth woman in a wave of violence that haunted Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood in 2007 and 2008. He pleaded not guilty to the charge and was released on $500,000 bail on Thursday. The 35-year-old New York City attorney was ordered to wear a GPS tracker, surrender his passport and have no contact with the victims as part of his bail conditions.
In August 2007, Pinkham says she was walking to her car after work at a club in a deserted area when the suspect pulled up next to her and asked if she needed a ride. Pinkham says she told him no, and then he kidnapped her at gunpoint, drove her to an industrial part of town, and raped her.
“The further we went, the more panic started to set in. The door was locked, so as soon as he stopped the car and I could get it open, I tried to run as fast as I could. He caught up with me and hit me repeatedly with a gun. And I fell on some train tracks. Then he raped me,” Pinkham told ABC News’ Erielle Reshef.
“I kept thinking, ‘Is this a nightmare? I’m going to wake up. This is a nightmare. I’m going to wake up,'” Pinkham said.
Lori Pinkham is shown during an interview with ABC News.
ABC news
Pinkham claims that the suspect then stole all of her belongings, including her passport, social security card, debit card, and credit cards. She says she lay on the train tracks in shock for about four hours before the sun came up and saw someone in the street who let her use their phone to call 911.
An ambulance arrived shortly afterwards and took Pinkham to a nearby hospital, where she was examined for sexual assault and underwent a rape investigation. The Boston Police Crime Lab later obtained a male DNA profile from her exam, but no suspect emerged, according to court documents.
The same DNA profile was linked to three more assaults in 2007 and 2008, prosecutors said.
As the years passed, Pinkham began to lose hope that a suspect would ever be identified. The rapes remained unsolved until last year, when Boston police used DNA from rape kits and checked them against publicly available genealogy websites. Investigators later followed Nilo to a business event and matched DNA from drinking glasses and utensils to the four victims, prosecutors allege.
Pinkham, now 39, says she is still affected by the violent attack nearly 16 years after it happened.
“A big part of my life ended that day. I couldn’t work. I didn’t want to spend time with anyone. I sometimes get panic attacks out of the blue. It’s been very difficult,” Pinkham said.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Pinkham’s mother, Janine McGovern, told ABC News. “I feel like there’s a part of her that hasn’t been able to continue her life, you know? So she didn’t grow up to be a woman with a career and a family. But for me, I didn’t see her grow up. I kind of lost her at a young age.”
Matthew Nilo is being charged with rape resulting from sexual assaults in Charlestown, in 2007 and 2008 in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston, June 5, 2023. His attorney, Joseph Cataldo, is at left.
Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool
Nilo has maintained his innocence and is scheduled to stand trial next year. His next court date is July 13. Nilo’s attorney, Joseph Cataldo, argued in court that his client’s bail should be lowered because of his accomplishments over the years.
“He went to university, studied law. He is engaged to be married. (He) has, as far as I know, no history of defaults or any kind of higher convictions in this state or any other state,” Cataldo said.
Cataldo later told reporters outside the courthouse, “It appears they obtained DNA evidence without ever getting a search warrant. If that turns out to be true, that is a point that will be vigorously addressed.”
Meanwhile, Pinkham is ready to face her alleged assailant in court, telling ABC News, “I go to all those court hearings to make sure I can speak up and also for the other victims who don’t want to.” come forward, I want to be there for them.”
“He can’t terrorize this town anymore. We are not his prey. He can’t be a predator in Boston or anywhere else,” Pinkham said.
ABC News’s Sally Hawkins, Lisa Zobel, Paulina Tam and Erielle Reshef contributed to this report.
