NATICK - The state’s Parole Board has refused to release an inmate who has spent more than 35 years behind bars for attacking one child and raping another in the 1970s.

In a decision released Thursday, the board said that Veronica Raymond, a 66-year-old man who was known as Wayne Raymond when he was convicted in 1976, had not fully addressed his "underlying sexually deviant behavior" and could not handle life outside of prison without hurting himself or others. Raymond himself had said he was not seeking parole but instead asked the board to review his case again in two to three years – a request the board also denied.

Raymond was 28 years old when he was arrested in June 1976 for two violent attacks on children, ages 8 and 13, in Plymouth over the span of 11 days. He had only been free for nine months after serving a five-year commitment for another attack on a child.

In the first of the two attacks in 1976, Raymond kidnapped and stabbed an 8-year-old boy who was left with a serious cut on his arm that required at least two operations. The child refused to tell prosecutors what else happened to him after Raymond abducted him.

Then, 11 days later, Raymond kidnapped and raped a 13-year-old boy at knifepoint after convincing the child to let him into his house by claiming to have trouble with his car. He was arrested the next day.

At his hearing in March, Raymond told the board the he felt his sentence was "just," saying: "I did what I did and I own it," according to the decision. He told the board he chose the first boy "because he was there" and attacked the second because he was "angry and carrying a lot of shame and guilt."

Raymond told the board that he was abused throughout his childhood – sexually by a neighbor and physically and emotionally by his parents – and has since been diagnosed with depression, schizophrenia and a gender identity disorder. He legally changed his name to Abdul Mateen in 1999 and to Veronica Raymond in May 2014.

Raymond asked the board to review his case again in two to three years so he could complete a sex offender treatment program that he has participated in off and on for more than a decade. The board refused, scheduled his next review for five years and recommending that he "commit to a more comprehensive rehabilitation."