Level 3 sex offender from Haverhill back in prison | Haverhill

HAVERHILL – A Level 3 sex offender from Haverhill with a long criminal record is back behind bars after being charged with violating a restraining order.

Kevin Scott McCarthy, 53, was ordered held without bail following his arraignment in Haverhill District Court on Friday.

On Tuesday, a judge found him a danger to himself and the public at another hearing in district court, and he was again ordered held without bail, court records show.

In May 2021, McCarthy was sentenced to seven to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to assaulting two women from Methuen and Haverhill.

He was given credit for three years and nine months of time spent in custody, and was released from prison this spring, according to records.

At his sentencing in 2021, he pleaded guilty to charges including slamming one of the women's head against a door multiple times, punching his victims and strangling one of them until she couldn't breathe. One of the women told police he held a knife to her throat during one attack, court documents show.

McCarthy subsequently pleaded guilty to six counts of assault with a dangerous weapon causing great bodily harm, seven counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, three counts of assault causing great bodily harm, two counts of assault and one count of strangulation.

In addition to his prison sentence, McCarthy was ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation and treatment, to avoid contact with his victims, to attend an education program against intimate partner abuse, and to abstain from drugs and alcohol.

McCarthy, who officially changed his name from Kevin Allard in 1993, has a long criminal history – more than 90 charges since 1988. He is registered as a Level 3 sex offender since he was convicted of raping a child by force in 1992, according to the state's Sex Offender Registry Board.

Follow staff writer Jill Harmacinski on Twitter @EagleTribJill.