BOSTON, June 19, 2017— Two Dorchester men face sentencing next week after separate juries convicted each of sexual offenses against children, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

A Suffolk Superior Court jury convicted UMAR MUHAMMED a.k.a. PHILLIP DURANT (D.O.B. 11/20/52) of two counts each of statutory rape of a child and dissemination of matter harmful to minors and single counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 and open and gross lewdness for offenses committed against two children who were known to him.  After the guilty verdicts were read on June 9, Judge Edward Leibensperger ordered Muhammed taken into custody to await sentencing next week.

Also convicted in Suffolk Superior Court was JORGE PENA (D.O.B. 10/8/74), whom a separate jury on Friday found guilty of two counts each of aggravated statutory rape of a child and indecent assault and battery on a child under 14.  At his sentencing next week, he faces at least 10 years in prison – the mandatory minimum term on the offense of aggravated rape of a child.

During the course of Muhammed’s weeklong trial earlier this month, Assistant District Attorney Laura Montgomery of Conley’s Child Protection Unit presented evidence and testimony proving that Muhammed met the victim and her family shortly after they immigrated to the United States.  While acting as the victim’s babysitter and tutor, the evidence showed, Muhammed sexually assaulted the victim and showed her pornographic movies repeatedly between 2006 and 2010, when the victim was between the ages of five and nine years old.

The victim disclosed the abuse to a family friend sometime in 2006. That friend later disclosed that she had previously been a victim of Muhammed.  Muhammed had befriended this second victim and her family in 2005, shortly after they, too, immigrated to the United States. The second victim reported Muhammed on one occasion turned on pornography while the victim was alone with him inside his apartment, and on a separate occasion exposed himself to her.  The victim fled Muhammed’s apartment during both encounters.  The incidents occurred between 2005 and 2006, when the victim was 14 years old.

Police were notified in January 2012 after the first victim disclosed the chronic abuse to her mother who then went to police.

Muhammed is also charged with a single count of indecent assault and battery of a child under 14 in a separate case involving a third victim.  That case remains pending in Suffolk Superior Court.

Jurors convicted Pena on Friday after deliberating approximately one day following a four-day trial, during which Assistant District Attorney Sarah McEvoy proved that Pena was known to the victim as a friend of her family and assaulted on her various occasions during 2013 and 2014.  The victim was 11 years old when the abuse began.

“These men used their positions of trust to take advantage of children whose wellbeing they had been entrusted to protect,” Conley said.  “Each of these young victims was incredibly brave to come forward, and we could not have achieved such an outcome on these cases without them.”

Montgomery was assisted in the prosecution of Muhammed by Victim-Witness Advocate Tina Nguyen.  Muhammed is represented by Earl Howard.  He faces sentencing June 27.

McEvoy was assisted in the case against Pena by Victim-Witness Advocate Sarah McIsaac.  Pena is represented by Kelly Cusack.  He faces sentencing June 26. 

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.