Serial rapist pleads guilty to kidnapping, rape charges

SPRINGFIELD, MA (WGGB/WSHM) - A West Springfield man, who had been accused of being a serial rapist and was facing several charges, has decided to change his plea.

Ali Ghaffar, who is still in his early 20s, is the one accused of raping numerous women. He was facing 31 charges that he had pled not guilty to a while back, but we learned on Thursday that he is changing that plea.

Ghaffar is pleading guilty to luring, attacking, and raping at least six women in a nine-month span between 2021 and 2022. A prosecutor, at the time, compared the details of the alleged crimes to a scene in a horror movie. After the arrest in 2022, Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni described one victim who was found walking along the Mass. Pike on March 4, 2022.

“When met by troopers, this female stated she had just been raped and threatened with a gun,” Gulluni said in 2022. “She estimated to be in his early 20s with long hair and a dark complexion.”

One of several accounts full of details the prosecution called disgusting. Ghaffar was arrested by police on March 31, 2022 before, they believed, he was about to rape another person. “He was followed, actually, to the area of the south end where he picked up what we believed to be another victim. That car, his car, was followed over the bridge into the area of west Springfield, where we knew the other sexual assaults had occurred. The team at that point decided to move in before any sexual assault occurred on that particular woman,” Gulluni explained in 2022.

The suspect faced 31 charges for different crimes, including rape, assault to rape, and aggravated rape, as well as kidnapping with serious bodily injury, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, threat to commit a crime, indecent assault and battery on a person 14 and over, and larceny. Prosecutors said the first rape occurred in July 2021 after he asked the victim if she would help him find PCP and other drugs.

Then, in February 2022, Ghaffar allegedly asked a second victim if she wanted to smoke weed and the same question was asked to a third victim. There were two other victims who he asked if they needed a ride and another was a prostitute who agreed to give money to in exchange for sex. “This individual is now held. Our anticipation and our effort will be that he remains held,” Gulluni noted in 2022.

Ghaffar has pleaded guilty and his sentencing date has been set for January 14.