Island Resident Indicted On Child Rape Charges

An island resident has been indicted by a grand jury on child rape charges.

Mark Hamilton, 23, of Nantucket, had an indictment returned last month in Nantucket Superior Court on seven charges of rape of a child and one charge of lascivious pose/exhibit of a child in nude. He was arraigned in Barnstable Superior Court last week and his bail remains at $2,500 cash, $25,000 surety.

Conditions of release include wearing a GPS monitoring device, having no contact with the alleged victim, stay away 25 yards from the alleged victim, stay away from Nantucket High School, and comply with electronic monitoring zones (alleged victim’s address and the high school).

According to the police report, Hamilton, who was an assistant athletic coach for one of Nantucket High School’s sports teams, allegedly began exchanging messages with a 15-year-old girl in November of 2022. Those exchanges eventually began happening through Facetime.

In January, February, and March of 2023, Hamilton and the alleged victim engaged in sexual acts she claimed were forced, according to the report.

On September 15, the alleged victim told police Hamilton contacted her through a social media app telling her "not to say anything, to say no to the investigators, to say it was another Mark, and to make the investigators believe something else," according to the report.

Hamilton has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. He was arraigned in Nantucket District Court in late September, but those charges were nolle prossed Monday morning by the Cape & Islands District Attorney's Office following the indictment.