CONCORD — A former martial arts instructor at Newmarket Junior/Senior High School, convicted in 2006 of 10 counts of child rape, was denied a medical parole on Thursday.

Keith Ingraham, 62, of Newmarket is serving up to 35 years in prison for raping a child younger than 16.

He sought a medical parole because he has cost the state more than $650,000 in medical costs since 2008.

His plan was to move to a rooming house in Manchester within walking distance of a new kidney dialysis center.

But parole board members Pierre J. Morin, Leslie Mendenhall and M. Kathryn McCarroll said the fact he could walk to the kidney dialysis center showed he could also walk right back into a young girl's life and ruin it.

Had Ingraham said he was going to a secure facility where he would not be ambulatory, that would be one thing, “but you are still completely independent. The only issue here is what it is going to cost the state. I feel that the public safety issue trumps anything else,” said Morin.

The parole board unanimously agreed that the issue was one of public safety versus public cost.

Cindy Domenici, medical parole adviser, told the board Ingraham is undergoing kidney dialysis three times a week at $270 per session, which is down from about $900 a session with a newly negotiated state contract

He has accumulated other expenses of up to $650,000, she said.

Ingraham ran a program for at-risk students at Newmarket Junior/Senior High School and the town's recreation center.

The victim's parents wrote a letter to the board.

“It is our strong belief that Keith Ingraham should be kept behind bars,” they said.

“He wasn't just some stranger in the night that came and violated our child, he was much more sinister than that. He lived a lie, put on a charade as a supposed close, dear friend of our family.” Then he ruined a childhood, they said.

- - - - - - - -

Paula Tracy may be reached at ptracy@unionleader.com.