Massachusetts state legislators have been trying to pass Jessica's Law, named for Jessica Lunsford, a 9-year-old girl in Florida who was abducted, raped and murdered in 2005. You may recall that the man sentenced to death for the crime, John Couey, was captured in Augusta.

Under Jessica's Law, anyone convicted of raping a child younger than 12 would get a mandatory 20-year prison sentence. The bill later passed the state House recently with mandatory minimum sentences of 10 and 15 years for a range of offenses against children.

But state Rep. James Fagan was a loud opponent of the bill. Wait, scratch that. Better adjectives to describe his behavior would be "disgusting," "offensive" and "monstrous."

Fagan is an attorney who is rightfully drawing fire from victims' rights activists for his comments last month about the bill on the House floor. Read what he said and you'll understand why.

He actually said, if this law passes -- he called the penalties "draconian" -- that he would "rip apart" child rape victims who take the stand:

"I'm going to make sure that the rest of their life is ruined, that when they're 8 years old, they throw up; when they're 12 years old, they won't sleep; when they're 19 years old, they'll have nightmares and they'll never have a relationship with anybody."

What a wretched, sickening display.

We know that anyone accused of a crime deserves vigorous defense from capable counsel. But this foaming-at-the-mouth tirade? Inexcusable. It surpasses mere overexuberance and borders on sadism.

Fagan owes a sincere apology to all he offended -- and perhaps owes himself some serious counseling.