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Infamous Bay Area Child Psychiatrist Dies In Prison

VACAVILLE (CBS SF) – A once nationally prominent child psychiatrist who pleaded no contest to molesting five of his young patients in the 1990s in San Mateo County has died in a prison hospital, state officials confirmed Thursday.

State prison officials said William Ayres passed away on April 20, 2016, at California Medical Facility in Vacaville. He was 84.

Ayres, a former president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, was sentenced to eight years in prison back in 2013 after he pleaded no contest to eight felony counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14.

Prosecutors contended Ayres fondled the victims – who ranged in age from 9 to 13 -- as part of medical examinations conducted during counseling sessions he conducted between 1991 and 1996.

Ayres rose to national prominence as he treated child patients from the 1960s to 2006. He also evaluated hundreds of cases, including some involving sex offenders, in San Mateo County juvenile court as far back as the 1970s.

Jack Ratcliffe, San Mateo's deputy chief of police, told the Bay Area News Group that Ayres' plea came after seven years of hard work and investigation.

"While this is the final chapter in that effort," Ratcliffe said, "our hearts and minds remain with the victims who found the courage to stand up to him and still live with the after effects of his crimes."

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