ALFRED — A homeless man from Portland who is accused of raping and battering a woman and leaving her nearly lifeless body in a motel bathtub in Saco while he went shopping made his initial appearance in court Monday on charges of murder and gross sexual assault.

ALFRED — The first four men to plead guilty to engaging former Zumba instructor and accused prostitute Alexis Wright for sex each had his figurative day in court without actually having to appear.

PORTLAND — Authorities had already seized a huge collection of child pornography when they raided Jack Moore’s Berwick home in 2008, but Moore “couldn’t restrain himself” and kept amassing more explicit pictures of children until he was finally arrested in 2011, a federal judge said in handing down a seven-year prison sentence Tuesday.