Ex-YDC supervisor sentenced to 20 to 40 years in case judge calls ‘most sadistic’ he’s seen
Judge N. William Delker, in sentencing former Youth Development Center employee Bradley Asbury to 20-to-40-years in prison, said the former supervisor used his power to violate a 14-year-old boy in the “most violent and humiliating way possible.”
MANCHESTER, NH – Judge N. William Delker, in sentencing former Youth Development Center employee Bradley Asbury to 20-to-40-years in prison, said the former supervisor used his power to violate a 14-year-old boy in the “most violent and humiliating way possible.”
Asbury, 70, of Dunbarton was convicted Nov. 26, 2024 of two counts of being an accomplice to the rape of Michael Gilpatrick in June of 1998. Asbury was accused, along with co-worker James Woodlock, 60, of Manchester, of holding the teen down on a stairwell as Stephen Murphy, 55, of Danvers, Mass., anally raped him and Jeffrey Buskey, 55, of Dorchester, Mass. orally raped the youth.
“You were in a position of authority to try and reform kids like him before they became irredeemably lost,” Delker told Asbury at his sentencing Monday morning in Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District. “You took advantage of your power to teach him a lesson he would never forget. You crossed a line that cannot be crossed. You believed that no one would believe a kid like Michael Gilpatrick because of his history and his background. Well, Mr. Asbury, you were very, very wrong … because 12 men and women found Michael Gilpatrick credible beyond a reasonable doubt.”
He said in the 14 years he’s been a judge that the case was “one of the most sadistic cases I have ever seen, nothing short of full punishment authorized by law is appropriate for this case. Even that isn’t going to erase the damage that you’ve done. Your sentence is going to stand as a clear statement that society and the criminal justice system will have zero tolerance for the kind of violence and abuse of power you inflicted on Michael Gilpatrick.“
The judge said he did not need to take into account that Asbury had been fired in 1994 from a similar state job and then rehired and posted at the YDC where he became house leader for East Cottage. Documents related to his termination were released last week by attorneys representing Gilpatrick and more than 1,000 other people in lawsuits against the state concerning the alleged abuse at YDC and other state-run facilities.
Prosecutors had asked the judge to sentence Asbury to 10-to-20-years on one conviction, with a 10-to-20-year sentence on the second charge, to be served consecutively. They had recommended that two years of the consecutive sentence be suspended.
The judge said the case didn’t warrant that.
As Gilpatrick, his wife Kelly, his mother and other friends left the court, individuals sitting on the side of the courtroom behind Asbury yelled out, “The truth will come out! Liar! Liar!”
Once in the lobby, Gilpatrick, with his wife by his side, said he was “beyond grateful. Today the truth came out. The people believed me. It was a long road coming. The way the judge handed down that sentence gave me a sense of justice. I know I still have a little bit of a road to go. I’m going to continue to fight for justice but today was a big win.”
So far, Gilpatrick has testified at two criminal trials. The second, against Murphy who was charged with one count of aggravated felonious sexual assault, ended in a hung jury last week.
Gilpatrick still needs to testify at the trials of Woodlock and Busby, which are scheduled for later this year. Testifying clearly is difficult for Gilpatrick who, during Asbury’s and Murphy’s trials, became emotional at times in recounting what happened, particularly under cross-examination when he had to take a break from testifying.
Assistant New Hampshire Attorney General Audriana Mekula prosecuted both Asbury and Murphy. Murphy’s case has yet to be set for a retrial.
Mekula said the maximum sentence imposed for Asbury was warranted, given the aggravated factors in the case, as outlined by the judge.
Gilpatrick maintains he was raped nearly four years “after the State knew he (Asbury) was a grave danger to children.”
Prosecutors said the sexual assault happened in May or June 1998. At that time, Gilpatrick hadn’t returned to YDC after being granted a furlough home. On May 27, 1998, Derry police brought the teen back. Per YDC policy, he was given a 10-day room confinement as punishment. When it concluded and after the alleged rape, he was transferred to King Cottage, where he was placed in maximum security.
Gilpatrick does not remember the date he was assaulted but said it occurred sometime after he went AWOL and was returned to East Cottage and before he was transferred to King.
He testified Murphy and Buskey brought him from his room on the second floor of East Cottage downstairs to Asbury’s office. Asbury and Gilpatrick spoke. Gilpatrick said something the youth counselors, including Woodlock, perceived as disrespectful to Asbury. Murphy and Buskey dropped Gilpatrick face-first onto the floor and began beating him, along with Woodlock and Asbury repeatedly “bouncing” Gilpatrick’s head off the floor.
He said then all four men picked him up by his arms and legs and carried him over to and halfway up the staircase in East Cottage, hitting his head off of the floor or the staircase along the way.
At the landing, Asbury and Woodlock held him down while Murphy anally penetrated him and Buskey orally penetrated him. Gilpatrick does not remember if the men said anything during this assault, but he was in and out of consciousness while it happened.
After the men stopped assaulting him, they carried the teen the rest of the way up the stairs and put him in his room, where he stayed, for the most part, until he left for King Cottage.
