Joseph Frechette was six years old, home sick from school, and alone with his father when he was asked to go into the bedroom.
At first, he didn’t understand what his father, Douglas Frechette, wanted. On Tuesday, Joseph, now 24, sat in a Merrimack County Superior Court courtroom and told jurors what happened next.
“He sat me on the bed and asked me to take my pants off,” said Joseph, pausing between words. “He was saying he wanted to show me something.”
The testimony against his father during his trial for aggravated felonious sexual assault — among other charges — became detailed and graphic.
Joseph said that was the first day his father sexually abused him, but it would not be the last. The abuse went on for almost ten years and followed him from house to house: Hillsborough, New Boston, Henniker, Dunbarton, Weare. The address changed, he told jurors, but the abuse did not.
Joseph was asked to sketch the layouts of the homes where he had lived with his family, and those drawings were presented to the jury.
Frechette faces multiple charges, including endangering the welfare of a child, sexual abuse of a minor, assault, and incest. The lengthy list took nearly 20 minutes for the clerk to read aloud on the first day of his jury trial.
Joseph’s testimony created a palpable sense of discomfort as prosecutors asked him to lay out what happened, and he did, step by step.
Joseph testified that the sexual abuse escalated over time, with his father telling him that he “wanted to try something new” and that “it might hurt.”
“He failed to protect his son from himself,” said prosecutor Alexander Gatzoulis.
On the night of his 13th birthday, Joseph said Frechette led him to a room where his mother, Kimberly Frechette, was undressed, and forced him into having sex with her while Frechette watched.
The mother, who was arrested last year by Dunbarton police on felony sexual assault charges, is expected to testify against Frechette on Wednesday.
As testified, some jurors shook their heads while others didn’t show any expression. In the gallery, Joseph’s wife pressed a tissue to her eyes.
Before he took the stand, his father’s public defender told the jury that Joseph’s allegations were fabricated.
“An implausible story, coerced false confessions, and a motivated liar,” said defense attorney Brian Civale. “That’s what has brought Douglas Frechette before you on each of these charges.”
The first person in authority that Joseph told about his experience was his probation officer in Sept. 2025. He was on probation for a domestic violence conviction involving his ex-fiancée.
“I was still scared of my father and what we would do to me,” Joseph said when attorneys pressed him about why he waited so long to report the sexual abuse.
At that time, Joseph was also living out of his car, struggling to find housing and having a hard time retrieving his belongings from Frechette’s camper.
Civale said the weight of all these pressures led Joseph to invent a lie about his father.
“Just enough to make this probation officer a little sympathetic to him, make sure Joseph doesn’t end up going to jail because of any issues,” Civale said.
The jury trial is scheduled for three more days, and Frechette is expected to testify in his own defense.
