A series of ads aimed at building civic pride here backfired when it included a portrait of a sex criminal whose crimes included child porn as well as rape of a child, assault and battery.
The Associated Press reported the New Bedford Sunday Standard-Times featured an ad that included Larry Heyes saying pride was why he lived in the area 47 years - but it turned out he pleaded guilty in 1994 to the foregoing charges, based on a relationship he had with a 14-year-old boy.
He told the Standard-Times he never masked his past and was just flattered when asked to be part of the ad campaign. ''If anyone had asked me about it, politely," he told the paper, "I would have told them. I made the mistake, and I ask for forgiveness, every day of my life.''
The ad's designer, John Cox, told the AP he had gotten to know Heyes while Heyes, a trash collector, picked up trash on his studio's street, but had no idea about his past. The campaign ads were to appear on bus signs and billboards as well as in newspapers, the AP said.
