B.B.C. U.K.
Andrew Cunningham suffered stab injuries to his head, neck and chest A man found stabbed to death in a "frenzied" attack was a convicted child sex offender, it has been revealed.
Andrew Cunningham, 52, was found dead in his caravan in Riverside Road in Earlsfield, south London, on Wednesday.
A post-mortem examination said the cause of death was multiple wounds including mutilation of the groin.
Mr Cunningham who worked as a lorry driver, was convicted of a sex attack on a girl under the age of 16 in 2001, police sources said.
Scotland Yard sources said Mr Cunningham had recently been taken off the sex offenders' register.
Police do not know how many people may have been involved in the attack, which they described as "frenzied".
Mr Cunningham had been stabbed numerous times in the head, neck and body and his groin area was mutilated.
Det Chief Insp Nick Scola, leading the investigation, said: "We're currently at an early stage in our inquiries and are keeping an open mind about the circumstances of this man's death."
He appealed for anyone in the area on Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning to contact police.
Stab murder man was sex offender
Study quantifies proportion of teens and young adults sending or posting sexually suggestive text and images
In an effort to better understand the intersection between sex and cyberspace with respect to attitudes and behavior, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and CosmoGirl.com commissioned a survey of teens and young adults to explore electronic activity. This is the first public study of its kind to quantify the proportion of teens and young adults that are sending or posting sexually suggestive text and images.
Note: Unless otherwise stated, teen means ages 13-19 and young adult means ages 20-26. A significant number of teens have electronically sent, or posted online, nude or semi-nude pictures or video of themselves.
How many teens say they have sent/posted nude or seminudepictures or video of themselves?
20% of teens overall
22% of teen girls
18% of teen boys
11% of young teen girls (ages 13-16)
Sexually suggestive messages (text, email, IM) are even more prevalent than sexually suggestive images. How many teens are sending or posting sexually suggestive messages?
39% of all teens
37% of teen girls
40% of teen boys
48% of teens say they have received such messages
Officer, lawmaker team up to criminalize "peering at children"
Editor: Yes, you read that correctly. The State of Maine is in the process of criminalizing those who look at children in public places. While your mind reels at the ramifications of this groundbreaking legislation, do consider that no one has ever been injured by someone looking at them. Consider too the practicalities and the inevitable selective enforcement flowing from such a law. Of course, we all realize how the law will be used: to further marginalize those who've already been through the legal wringer and to provide the mechanism necessary to imprison those whom the "child protectors" wish to permanently remove from society, having been unsuccessful in previous attempts. This is an odious law but one which is entirely predictable, given the succession of ever greater outrages introduced into law by very nasty and contemptuous lawmakers such as Dawn Hill.
Bill toughens law on "visual sexual aggression" against children in Maine
Those who peer at children in public could find themselves on the wrong side of the law in Maine soon.
A bill that passed the House last month aims to strengthen the crime of visual sexual aggression against children, according to state Rep. Dawn Hill, D-York.
Her involvement started when Ogunquit Police Lt. David Alexander was called to a local beach to deal with a man who appeared to be observing children entering the community bathrooms. Because the state statute prevents arrests for visual sexual aggression of a child in a public place, Alexander said he and his fellow officer could only ask the man to move along.
"There was no violation of law that we could enforce. There was nothing we could charge him with," Alexander said.
He attended a talk with Hill a week later and brought the case to her attention. Hill pledged to do what she could, Alexander said, and the result was a change through the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee in the House, which made the law applicable in both private and public places.
Alexander said he's grateful Hill was willing to take up the cause, and is hopeful the measure will clear the Senate.
"I'll be pleased that we were able to identify this flaw and take steps to rectify it," he said.
Under the bill, if someone is arrested for viewing children in a public place, it would be a Class D felony if the child is between 12 to 14 years old and a Class C felony if the child is under 12, according to Alexander.
Hill said she believes the move was necessary to correct what she called a "loophole" in the state's criminal law statutes.
"I told Lt. Alexander that I would be happy to work with him and sponsor a bill that would correct this in the 2008 session," Hill said. "And so we did."
In arguing for the bill, Alexander said she cited public rest rooms as places where the people using them should have a reasonable expectation of privacy. She said the committee determined that there would not be any major side effects from expanding the statute to include public places.
The bill recently cleared a fiscal review, done because of the state's major prison budget crunch, and Hill said it should be heading to the Senate before long.
York Police Chief Doug Bracy said the statute would represent a fairly minor change that would help keep the public safer, especially children. He noted that York police respond fairly regularly to reports of public peepers on the town's beaches.
With ever-growing concern over sexual predators, Bracy said the arrests will also allow police to check backgrounds and determine if there is a criminal history involved.
"There is a growing outcry by the public to protect our children," Bracy said, noting that tourists from all over the country visit York.
Alarming number of teens send nude pics
Editor: Once again, the ALARMISTS are ALARMED!!! It would seem that the recognition of adolescents as sexual beings never ceases to alarm them. Sadly, their alarm will take the form of even more government regulation, even more criminalization, and even more surveillance in a society that already distrusts itself to the point of hysteria having already cast off nearly all vestiges of liberty. Those of us who are not so easily alarmed need to open our mouths and tell the alarmists to shut theirs! Last Edited: Wednesday, 10 Dec 2008, 7:11 PM EST WPRI - A new survey reveals that nearly one in five teenagers has posted or sent explicit photos of themselves, either over the computer, or via their cell phone. The study was conducted by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and CosmoGirl.com. Researchers questioned 1,280 teens and young adults. Twenty-two percent of the teenage girls surveyed admitted having sent or posted nude or semi-nude photos of themselves. Even more disturbing, 11% of girls between ages 13 and 16 admitted doing the same. But the girls are not alone. 18% of teenage boys also admit sending or posting nude or semi-nude photos of themselves. And those racy photos often end up going to more viewers than intended. About one-third of girls and a quarter of boys say they've seen nude photos of others that were originally meant to be private. "It's as simple as right click, copy, paste, and someone owns that picture forever," says Scituate Middle School principal Lawrence Filippelli, who educates Rhode Island middle and high school students about cyber safety. Filippelli tells us parents are often the last to know when their children are taking part in explicit activities, online. "When you're dealing with online activity, or IM-ing activity, believe it or not the child will keep that information private and not tell an adult for anywhere from three to six months." He's says the best way to keep your kids away from racy behavior, is to keep a close eye on what they're doing. "Our message is always for the parents to be aware of what their kids are doing online, what they're texting to each other, and investigating that."1 in 5 admits to sending, posting nude photos
Created On: Wednesday, 10 Dec 2008, 6:13 PM EST
Rye sex offender indicted on charges he worked with youths
PORTSMOUTH — A Rockingham County Superior Court grand jury has handed up three indictments against a convicted rapist accused of working as a youth counselor and not informing his employer of his sex offender status.
Jeremy "Jay" Semprebon, 40, of 541 Washington Road in Rye has been indicted on felony charges of "prohibition of child care services" and failure to report as a sex offender. He was also indicted on a misdemeanor charge of prohibited sales of alcohol to a minor.
Portsmouth police arrested Semprebon on Aug. 14 and charged him with five felony counts of "prohibition from child care services of a person convicted of certain offenses."
Semprebon's Portsmouth charges resulted in him being held on $30,000 cash bail at the Rockingham County House of Corrections, where he remained as of Tuesday, according to jail officials.
Authorities say Semprebon is a registered sex offender on New Hampshire's public list, having been convicted in 1995 in Strafford County of aggravated felonious sexual assault on a 5-year-old child.
Three of the Portsmouth charges alleged that Semprebon failed to disclose his sex offender status before counseling minors at Seacoast Outright, while acting as an agent of AIDS Response Seacoast.
A separate felony charge alleges that he provided services as a youth education coordinator at Cross Roads House homeless shelter, and a fifth alleges he failed to inform AIDS Response Seacoast that he is a sex offender.
Police allege Semprebon had contact with minors during his course of employment with AIDS Response Seacoast, despite a court order to not have contact with children. He is alleged to have begun working as a youth coordinator for the nonprofit in the summer of 2007 and did not disclose his sex offender status when he was hired.
As part of his job, Semprebon was sent to other nonprofits and worked with both adults and minors.
In August, investigators said they knew of five instances in which Semprebon was in the presence of youths.
Calls to the Rockingham County Attorney's Office regarding which "prohibition" charges he was indicted on, were not returned on Tuesday.
The "failure to report" and "prohibited sales" indictments stem from charges brought forward by the Rye Police Department.
Rye police charged Semprebon with a felony-level count of "duty to report" for allegedly failing to notify police of his employment status after he lost his job with AIDS Response Seacoast.
They also charged him with a Class A misdemeanor of prohibited sales for allegedly providing a 17-year-old boy with a mixed beverage.
Sex offender charged with photographing children
[Ed: Let this sink in a moment: A man has been charged with taking pictures of children while on his property without their permission. Given that they were trick-or-treating, it is safe to assume that the children were fully clothed and not engaged in sexual behavior, so the photographs could in no way be considered "child pornography". The salient and disturbing fact of his arrest and charge is that he, as a registered sex offender, has had his liberties greatly reduced by the state to exclude such things as taking pictures of minors without permission, a right which everyone else enjoys throughout the United States.
This right is summarized in the publication "The Photographer's Right" by attorney Bert P. Krages:
"Members of the public have a very limited scope of privacy rights when they are in public places. Anyone can be photographed without their consent except when they have secluded themselves in places where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy such as dressing rooms, restrooms, medical facilities, and inside their homes. Despite misconceptions to the contrary, the following subjects can almost always be photographed lawfully from public places: accident and fire scenes, children, celebrities, bridges and other infrastructure residential, and commercial buildings, industrial facilities, and public utilities transportation facilities (e.g., airports), Superfund sites, criminal activities, and law enforcement officers".
The state of Alaska has seen fit to eliminate liberties of a sex offender NOT currently on probation or parole (an important distinction often lost not only on the public but by reporters) for the rest of his life, a disturbing trend playing out across the U.S. In other words, rights enjoyed by everyone else and thus perfectly legal become felonies when exercised by registered sex offenders who are then sent to prison for having failed to recognize that they have no rights. ]
JUNEAU — A registered sex offender accused of taking photos of children while they were trick-or-treating has been charged.
Edward Lieber, 35, of Waupun, made his initial court appearance Monday in Dodge County Circuit Court. He is charged with three felony counts of a registered sex offender intentionally photographing a minor without consent. Each count carries a maximum penalty of up to 3½ years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The Waupun Police Department was contacted by three Waupun parents who said that Lieber had taken pictures of their young children, ages 2, 3 and 4, while they trick-or-treated at his Madison Street home on Oct. 31. A woman told police that the children entered a “Halloween-type structure” where Lieber was sitting inside with a camera. As the children entered, witnesses say he followed the children and proceeded to take pictures of them without asking permission, according to the criminal complaint.
Uncomfortable with the situation, one of the parents logged onto the Wisconsin Sex Offender Registry and found a photograph of Lieber, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old Fairwater girl in 1993, according to the criminal complaint.
When questioned, Lieber told police that he took about five to six photographs that were intended for his father. Lieber then surrendered the role of film to police. Upon developing the film, Waupun police Officer Brian O’Donovan discovered six images of underage children on the film, according to the criminal complaint.
A preliminary hearing date has not been set.
http://www.fdlreporter.com/article/20081208/FON0101/81208141/1985/FON04#pluckcomments
Kids who photograph themselves naked are child pornographers and sex offenders in Ohio
A fifteen year old girl in Newark, OH faces being labelled a "sex offender" for sending naked cellphone photos of herself (a minor) to other minors. If convicted, she'll spend the next ten years on public registries, classed as a producer of child pornography. No word on what compensation she (as the victim of the crime) will be able to get from herself (as the perp).
According to Ohio law, 2907.323(A)(3) states anyone possessing material that shows a minor in a state of nudity is guilty of a fifth-degree felony. The violation also might qualify the juvenile as a Tier I sexual offender, which requires annual registration for a decade.
The section of the law the girl, who is a foster child, was charged with allows parents or guardians to take photos of their unclothed children for a list of acceptable purposes but does not provide an exemption for the child themselves.
Parents say assault charges against son too much
[Ed: As outraged as I am by the treatment of adults as sex offenders, I am doubly so by cases in which children or adolescents are subjected to the sex hysteria witch hunt. Those self-proclaimed "child savers" who would torture children in this manner should themselves be regarded as predators and punished for their actions! And, what the hell, put them on a publicly accessible registration and subjected to a lifetime of second-class citizenship and restrictions. It is long past the time when they come to be seen for the threat to society that they pose. District Attorneys such as Sandy Williams need to be held criminally liable for their offenses against children. ]
Mequon - In a case his parents consider prosecutorial overkill, a 14-year-old Mequon boy has been charged with five counts of fourth-degree sexual assault and faces the prospect of being tagged a sex offender for touching several girls in what his parents admit was an inappropriate manner.
So, last week in Ozaukee County Circuit Court, the boy's parents said no when Ozaukee County District Attorney Sandy Williams offered to reduce the charges to two counts of fourth-degree sexual assault and, if he pleaded no contest, to expunge his conviction if he stayed out of trouble for a year.
The parents said their son was guilty of nothing more than disorderly conduct.
"We don't want to have anything to do with sexual assault," said the boy's father, who along with the boy's mother is not being identified to protect the identity of the juvenile boy. "He could be put on a sex offender registry list that would come back to haunt him."
Now the boy is scheduled to appear in court again Feb. 3 for an evidentiary hearing, which amounts to a trial, in which the girls are likely to be compelled to testify and experts will be called to give their opinion on whether a 12- or 13-year-old boy can be sexually aroused by grabbing a girl's buttocks.
The maximum penalty for each of the five misdemeanor charges is nine months' incarceration, according to a juvenile delinquency petition. According to state Department of Corrections spokesman Rachel Krueger, those convicted of fourth-degree sexual assault are not required to register as sex offenders, but a judge could order the boy to do so, especially since the alleged victims were children and because of the number of counts against him.
According to the petition filed in July by Williams, here's what happened:
Two girls at Steffen Middle School in Mequon told officials June 6, a Friday, that the boy, 13 years old at the time, during class had grabbed the buttocks of one girl, 14, and unhooked the bra of the other girl, 13.
Under questioning by police, officials learned of other unreported incidents going back to October 2007, when the boy was 12, when he grabbed other girls' buttocks or their breasts, licked a girl's neck and tickled another girl in the stomach, according to the petition.
The boy's father met with Steffen Principal Deborah Anderson later that day and was informed that his son would be suspended for the last four days of the school year and that the matter was being referred to the school's police liaison officer "as matter of routine," the father said.
Mequon-Thiensville Schools Superintendent Demond Means declined to comment.
On the following Monday, the parents learned that what they thought was a school issue had become a police matter when the boy was called into the Mequon Police Department to be interviewed and was arrested.
The father had hoped that a visit to the police station would be little more than an attempt to help his son "man up" to what he had done, he said.
"I was in total shock" when his son was arrested, he said, especially after he had told the police officer they had already taken steps to discipline their son.
The weekend before the arrest, the boy's parents had made arrangements for their son to be taken to a wilderness camp for troubled teens in Utah.
It was a surprise to the boy when he was whisked away in the middle of the night on Wednesday and flown to the camp.
He stayed there for the next two months.
Mequon police Capt. Dan Buntrock, who recommended the charges to Williams, said the charges are appropriate for the behavior.
"If someone touches someone sexually in a bar, is that fourth-degree sexual assault? Yes," he said. "It doesn't really matter where it occurs. And when the victim is of a certain age, it's even more serious."
State law says fourth-degree sexual assault occurs when someone intentionally touches another person to gratify himself sexually, or sexually degrades or humiliates that person.
In the opinion of Buntrock and Williams, that's what the boy did.
To the parents, however, their son is guilty of inappropriate behavior, disorderly conduct and "numskull friendliness," the mother said, quoting a therapist with whom her son has met.
"A 12-year-old boy does not do these things to sexually gratify himself," she said.
According to affidavits submitted in court Thursday in an attempt to block an order to testify in court, the girls and their parents said they did not feel degraded by the boy and that they did not want him criminally prosecuted, only disciplined by the school for the two events on June 6.
Their son and the girls remain friends, the boy's parents said.
OKC molester removed from treatment, sent to prison
[Ed: One of the myriad bizarre implications flowing from residency restriction laws]
OKLAHOMA CITY — A convicted child molester has been sent to prison after a judge learned the treatment center where he was living was located near a city park.
District Judge Virgil C. Black on Friday ordered 58-year-old Claude Stanley Fontenot be removed from the Avalon Correctional Services' Carver Center in south Oklahoma City and sent to prison. Fontenot has been at the center since being sentenced Oct. 15 on two counts of child sexual abuse.
At Friday's hearing, Black said he could no longer allow Fontenot to stay at the center because it violates a state law that prohibits sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a park.
The two victims, now teens, were in the courtroom. The girls' mother said she's relieved Fontenot is going to prison.
"That's what we've wanted all along — to see him behind bars," she said.
Attorney Josh Welch said sending his client to prison for three years after he was sentenced to the Carver Center violates the double jeopardy provision of the Constitution.
Welch said he hopes to have Fontenot released within 30 days and keep him out of jail while his case is under review.
Fontenot initially was sentenced to three years at the Carver Center and 17 years of probation and was required to register as a sex offender. The Carver Center, on south May Avenue, is 813 feet from Ted Reynolds Park. District Judge Virgil C. Black said at the time Fontenot was sentenced, no one involved in the case realized the center's proximity to the park.
Videotapes Could Reverse Sex Abuse Convictions
Sunday, December 7, 2008 Copyright 2008 by KTVU.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Advocates for sex offenders take aim at registry, other rules
Elected officials and victims’ advocates say tough sex-offender laws are necessary to protect society from dangerous criminals. But some offenders and their relatives, like Kennedy, see the restrictions as overly intrusive and unnecessary.
Her husband has served his time and is a danger to no one, Kennedy argues.
“In Salem, they had a witch-hunt, and in America, we’re still having a witch-hunt, and the witch-hunt is just different,” said Kennedy, a Parsonsburg nurse. “It’s the sex offender.”
Kennedy runs a blog called Sex Offenders and Their Wives, where she vents about the difficulties of living with sex-offender restrictions and debunks what she said are myths about offenders, like the high probability that they will re-offend and their imperviousness to treatment.
She also heads the Maryland chapter of the national group Reform Sex Offender Laws. So far, there are only three other members, she said.
Out eight years
Sandy Coulbourne, now 48, met Michael Kennedy, now 53, in 2007 at a bookstore. Both were browsing the murder mysteries.
After only a couple of dates, Michael Kennedy sat his new girlfriend down and told her he had spent 20 years in federal prison for rape and murder before being paroled in 2000. He hadn’t done it, he insisted.
She cried at the thought of an innocent man imprisoned for that long. The two married a few months later, despite his parole officer spending 45 minutes trying to convince her not to go through with it.
People ask how she can love a killer and rapist, but the man she knows could never have done those things, Sandy Kennedy said. She can recite the details of his case, pointing out police, prosecution and witness errors along the way. In fact, it took three trials, with two hung juries, to convict him.
She was spurred to activism when Michael Kennedy was required to register as a sex offender earlier this year, even though he had been out of prison for eight years.
The directive to register came out of a recent federal law that Kennedy and other convicted sex offenders are fighting.
She started reading about sex offender laws on the Internet and found that lots of offenders, their family members and some advocacy groups agreed the restrictions had gone too far.
Human Rights Watch released a study last year arguing that registration laws are overbroad, that registries have led to violence and harassment against registrants, and that residency restrictions “banish[] offenders from entire urban areas.”
Like Sandy Kennedy’s blog, offender-advocacy Web sites argue that the majority of registered sex offenders are not monsters who repeatedly kidnap and rape children — or, as Baltimore criminal defense lawyer Thomas P. Bernier put it, “some lecherous guy pulling 10-year-olds into a van.”
Many don’t pose a continuing threat to children, Bernier said; some never did in the first place.
Challenging the premise
Fred Berlin, founder of the Johns Hopkins Sexual Disorders Clinic and an associate professor of psychiatry, said sex offender monitoring laws and restrictions are predicated on the premise that offenders are more likely than not to commit another offense.
Recent studies have shown that, at most, 20 percent to 30 percent re-offend, a lower rate of recidivism than other criminals, he said. (Other sources point out that different types of sex offenders re-offend at different rates, and that this statistic only covers reported offenses.)
Annapolis lawyer Thomas A. Pavlinic said few offenders need to be monitored for life, although many are anyway.
“There are these evil people,” said Pavlinic, who specializes in defending accused child molesters. “Those are violent sexual predators, people from whom the public has to be protected. There are a lot of people who have in the course of their life simply made a mistake, either with their own children or because of the age difference.”
They “get treatment and then they never do it again,” he said.
Sandy Kennedy suggested that the government register criminals with a higher risk of recidivism, like drug dealers.
She said she is not opposed to all sex offender restrictions, just the pointless ones.
“I’m not against totally what they make us do,” she said. “I know there’s a reason people need to be protected. But come on, that Halloween stuff was a joke.”
She was referring to a widely mocked Maryland effort to get certain sex offenders to post “no candy” signs on their houses, turn off their outside lights and ignore knocks on the door on Oct. 31.
The signs were provided not only to child sex offenders but to those registered as sexually violent. So Michael Kennedy received a sign, even though the crime for which he was convicted did not involve children, his wife said.
Elizabeth Bartholomew, who runs Maryland’s Sex Offender Registry, said the effort was merely a “request” on the state’s part, designed to protect the offenders “so the community knows that they’re trying to make sure everyone’s safe.”
Opposing the registries
“Safe,” though, was not what Sandy Kennedy felt when a local newspaper published her husband’s name.
“[O]ur hick town’s little newspaper, decided to use a full page to report every sex offenders name and address,” she wrote on her blog. “I’ve read about the vigilantes who prey on sex offenders. We are small town Delmarva and I could just see some red neck get his buddies loading up in his pick up and start working on the list.”
Vigilantism is one reason some activists oppose putting offenders’ identifying information, including pictures, on Internet registries.
Paul Shannon, a founder of Reform Sex Offender Laws, said registries encourage people to target sex offenders, citing the 2006 murder of two Maine offenders by someone who found their names online. (Shannon would like to see public registries abolished; information about truly dangerous criminals should be shared among law enforcement officials, who would decide whether to alert the community.)
One of the men killed in Maine had served time for having otherwise consensual sex with his girlfriend when he was 19 and she was a few days shy of 16.
So-called “Romeo and Juliet” offenders shouldn’t be required to register as child sex offenders alongside pedophiles, Shannon said.
“Virtually all adolescent sexuality is now criminalized,” said Shannon, who said he is not an offender or ex-offender, just a civil liberties advocate. “This is a serious attack on children and their right to grow up.”
ABC reporter John Stossel did a series earlier this year on offender laws gone overboard; among other people, he featured a man who had, had sex with his girlfriend when he was 19 and she was 15. Twelve years later, they are married with four children, but he must still register as a sex offender.
Russell P. Butler, executive director of the Maryland Crime Victims’ Resource Center Inc., said cases involving two consenting adolescents are usually dealt with less harshly than other sex cases. Judges often give statutory offenders probation before judgment so they do not have to register, he said.
Besides which, he said, he is primarily concerned with protecting children who don’t have the capacity to consent to sex, not the older people who have sex with them.
“If we have to balance the rights of pedophiles versus the rights of children, I’m going to balance those to protect children and not pedophiles,” Butler said.
Legislators seem to feel the same way, said defense lawyer Bernier, a shareholder at Segal, McCambridge, Singer & Mahoney Ltd.
“In general, the real problem is, any time someone in the legislature feels they haven’t done enough, they propose a law on sex offenses,” he said.
He said sex offenders have begun pushing back against the regulations but haven’t gotten much traction.
“Who wants to be the guy who wants to be known as out in [the] legislature championing sex offenders?” Bernier said.
‘Opportunity to know’
Bartholomew, of the state’s Sex Offender Registry, said critics of sex offender laws actually have much less to complain about in Maryland than they would elsewhere.
For example, some states prevent offenders from living within a certain distance of schools, daycares or churches, forcing them out of cities, into the country or even onto the streets. Critics say such residency restrictions ultimately do more harm than good by forcing offenders underground.
In Florida, several sex offenders were famously discovered to be living together in a colony under a bridge because it was the only place where they wouldn’t be living too close to a forbidden landmark.
Maryland does not have automatic residency restrictions, Bartholomew said. Judges can, however, order individual offenders as a condition of parole or probation not to live within a certain distance of a place.
For those who doubt the necessity or fairness of registries, U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein points to Richard D. Morris.
Morris was a baseball coach about to take three of his players on a trip to Florida, according to a press release Rosenstein’s office issued earlier this year. A suspicious grandfather of one of the boys searched the Maryland Sex Offender Registry and found that Morris was a convicted sex offender.
The trip was halted. The grandson told police Morris had touched him inappropriately in the past, and when police searched Morris’ home computers, they found child pornography.
“The community ought to have an opportunity to know and therefore be alert to any sex offenders who might present a risk to other people,” Rosenstein said.
Freedom to fight
As a convicted rapist and murderer, Michael Kennedy is hardly a sympathetic poster boy for changes to the sex offender monitoring laws.
Still, his wife tries.
Sandy Kennedy said she started the blog and the Maryland chapter of Reform Sex Offender Laws so she could find other women who could relate to the experience of living with a convicted sex offender.
“I can talk to my husband and I do a lot, but I thought it would be nice to talk to other wives or other girlfriends,” Sandy Kennedy said.
Shannon, the national organization’s founder, said it’s typical for women who are close to sex offenders to advocate on their behalf. The offenders themselves don’t necessarily want to call more attention to themselves, he said.
“These stories are absolutely heartbreaking,” he said. “The people who are carrying around the pain are mostly the women: the mothers and the wives.”
Kennedy has her own pain. She said her sister, who didn’t know about Michael’s past, stopped returning her calls after his picture went online.
Though Kennedy worries about her safety and that of her husband, she said she needs to speak publicly in order to bring change.
“I figure he’s on the registry; how much more visible can you get?” she said. “I felt that if we didn’t want publicity, that we won’t be able to change the way things are.
“We were trying to keep a low [profile], not being public,” she said, “until he registered and they kind of gave us the freedom to go on out and make it known, and fight some of the injustices.”
An accusation is enough to land people on California's list of child abusers, but only long legal battles can clear their names.
New ways to protect your family against convicted sex offenders; including e-mail and telephone alertsCorey
NEW LAWS IN EFFECT
The following provisions of the N.C. General Assembly's session laws 2008-117, 2008-118 and 2008-220 took effect Dec. 1.
- Every sex offender required to register must report to his or her local sheriff's office in person within three days after moving to a new home, receiving a verification form from the State Bureau of Investigation and to provide written notification of address changes, changes to academic status or employment status at colleges and universities and intent to move out of state.
- Registered offenders cannot access commercial social networking Web sites that permit minors to become members or maintain personal Web pages.
- Registered offenders can no longer have their names legally changed.
- Offenders whose victims were younger than 16 are prohibited from being on the premises of any place intended primarily for the use, care or supervision of minors, including, but not limited to, schools, children's museums, child care centers, nurseries and playgrounds. They also are prohibited from being within 300 feet of any such place located on other premises not intended primarily for minors, such as those located in malls, shopping centers or other places open to the general public.
New rules restricting where sex offenders can go and what Web sites they can visit will likely mean more work for Gaston County Sheriff's deputies.
Cpl. Shane Farmer doesn't mind the additional duties. He applauds the N.C. General Assembly's changes to state sex offender registration laws that took effect Dec. 1.
"I think it was definitely a big step forward in the legislation that was provided to us," he said. "I think it's fantastic."
One of two deputies assigned to keep tabs on Gaston's 340 registered sex offenders, Farmer said he expects more reports of offenders out of compliance now that requirements for registration are more stringent.
Churches closed to some
A law prohibiting sex offenders whose victims were under 16 from being within 300 feet of child care centers and playgrounds has already drawn reports of violators.
"We've fielded several complaints of that nature already," Farmer said. "Once the general public is more aware of the new law changes, that's going to increase."
Gaston County deputies asked the state Attorney General's office if the 300-foot law applied to churches, which often provide nurseries for children while their families attend worship services. The Justice Department said churches are not exempt.
"There is no exception within North Carolina law that would allow them to attend church if that church is within 300 feet of a nursery," Farmer said.
Sex offenders are now required to register with their local sheriff's office within three business days of moving to a new home. They receive two address verification letters per year from the State Bureau of Investigation and must present them to deputies in person within three business days.
Formerly, offenders had 10 days to verify their addresses and to notify the sheriff's office of a move.
"It puts more restrictions on the actual offenders and makes them held more accountable," Farmer said. "It does help our records. What I forsee happening is it making us a lot busier."
About half of the county's registered sex offenders have failed to notify the sheriff's office when they changed their addresses, Farmer said. When offenders don't show up within the three-day window and can't be located at their homes, deputies obtain warrants for their arrest.
No more MySpace
Two new laws restrict sex offenders' activity online. It's now illegal for registered offenders to access social networking Web sites such as MySpace and Facebook that allow minors to sign up.
Farmer said offenders who created personal profiles on such Web sites before the law took effect and those who did so in other states can no longer visit the sites.
Effective May 9, registered offenders must provide their local sheriff's office with all e-mail addresses, instant messenger screen names and other online identifiers. Those who get new identifiers will be required to notify the sheriff's office in person within 10 days.
Finally, registered offenders are now forbidden from having their names legally changed.
"They were figuring out if they changed their name and changed their appearance a little bit, they could kind of escape their past, so to speak," Farmer said.
Of North Carolina's 100 counties, Farmer estimated that Gaston ranks in the top 10 in sex offender population. The county is also unique in its approach to keeping track of offenders. Sheriff's deputies visit each registered offender's home four times per year.
"Sheriff (Alan) Cloninger takes a very proactive appraoch to that, and I think it's a good thing," Farmer said. "We actually go above the statute."
Deputies divide the list of resident offenders by ZIP code and make "knock and talk" visits to every one within a three-month period. Farmer said the offenders are usually cooperative.
"They know what we're there for," he said. "They'll come out on the porch or they'll even invite us in briefly. Generally, unless they're in violation and they know they're in violation, they won't avoid us at all."
Farmer said the home visits provide a deterrent to those who may commit repeat offenses. Offenders are more likely to follow the law if they know deputies will be checking up on them regularly, he said.
The tougher sex offender laws may result in fewer offenders moving to the Tar Heel State.
"I've had people calling to get clarification on some of the laws, and if they were easier, they would move here," Farmer said. "I think some of the new laws might slow that down, and that's a good thing for North Carolina and Gaston County."
Patty Wetterling Questions Residency Limits on Sex Offenders
Peg Langhammer, left, executive director of Day One, Patty Wetterling, keynote speaker, and A.T. Wall, director of the Department of Corrections, at the conference. PROVIDENCE — Patty Wetterling has spent 19 years trying to find out what happened to her son, Jacob, abducted at age 11 while riding his bike near the family’s Minnesota home. But although she is well aware that statistics show sexual assault is the prime motivation in child kidnappings, Wetterling doesn’t back tough residency restrictions for convicted sex offenders. “It’s such a complicated issue,” she said yesterday, after her keynote address to a statewide conference on managing convicted sex offenders left her listeners in tears. “People want simple answers, and there aren’t any.” Instead, Wetterling said, people have to be willing to realize that the ways to make sure convicted sex offenders who are released from prison will not repeat their crimes have to be as varied as the offenders and their methodology. And, she said, communities will have to deal with the ugly truth that most child molesters know their victims very well. “Everybody wanted to help us find Jacob,” Wetterling said in addressing more than 225 law enforcement officials, victims’ advocates, counselors and probation officers gathered at the Marriott for the day-long conference. “But nobody really wants to have to look too closely at people in their church community or members of their family.” Yesterday’s conference was organized by the Rhode Island Sex Offender Management Task Force and financed by a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, with much of the planning done by Day One, a statewide support and advocacy agency for victims of sexual assault and other violent crimes. The conference, and Wetterling’s visit, come just a few months after Rhode Island passed its first residency restriction for sex offenders, making it a felony for them to live within 300 feet of a school. The law has drawn sharp criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union, and some Rhode Island police chiefs have also raised questions about it. Peg Langhammer, Day One’s executive director, said yesterday that she does not support such laws, because not only do they fail to address the complexity of dealing with sex offenders, they could also have unintended effects, such as causing some to try to dodge the registration process and hide from authorities. Langhammer said that it’s difficult to find a balance between making the public feel safe and helping convicted sex offenders get their lives back on track. She said it’s particularly complicated since the phrase “sex offender” covers criminals from rapists to child molesters. One thing that is clear, A.T. Wall, director of the state Department of Corrections, said yesterday, is that with a state as small as Rhode Island, there is “no such thing as not in my backyard” when it comes with having to deal with sex offenders. Noting that a registered sex offender lives nine houses from his Providence home, he said there are about 400 sex offenders in prison in Rhode Island and more than 1,500 who are free on probation or parole. For Wetterling, her husband and their three other children, life changed irrevocably on Oct. 22, 1989. Jacob was riding his bike home from a nearby convenience store in St. Joseph, Minn., when he and his friends were accosted by a masked man with a gun. The others were let go, but the man took Jacob, a kind-hearted youngster who his mother says loved peanut butter, playing sports with his brother and fishing with his dad. As one of the conference’s keynote speakers, Wetterling, a former math teacher who now serves as director of sexual violence prevention for the Minnesota Department of Health, said she came to Rhode Island to “talk about hope.” “The topic of sex offenders is one that promotes fear, and I know that fear because I lived it,” she said. “I lived it and I didn’t like it so I have moved [toward] hope. I have hope that I will find out what happened to my son. “And we must have hope that sex offenders will succeed in their rehabilitation, because that is the ultimate safety for our children.”
Teesside mum fears she has been mistakenly linked to a paedophile
A Stockton mum-of-three fears her window was smashed because she shares the same surname as a sex offender on her street. But Colleen Waterhouse says she is no relation to Andrew Peter Waterhouse, who is facing jail this week for spying on teenage girls as they undressed at a swimming pool. The mum was just getting ready to go to work when a missile was thrown through her living room window at around 4.30pm on Friday, November 21. “I just heard a big crack,” she said. “I opened the blinds and the front pane had gone. It was a bit of a shock. “My children were in the room. My little girl was very upset and my youngest son was shaken up. But when I went outside I couldn’t see anybody.” Colleen, who works at the University Hospital of North Tees, lives with her three children, James, 11, Matthew, nine, and Elizabeth, three, on Etherley Walk, Hardwick, Stockton. She said when police came to investigate the incident they told her she may have been mistakenly targeted for having the same surname as Andrew Peter Waterhouse. “They thought that was the reason for this. I’d never had any problems before his court case,” she said. As reported, Andrew Waterhouse, who also lives in Etherley Walk, admitted voyeurism when he appeared at Teesside Magistrates’ Court last month and is awaiting sentencing on Wednesday. The court heard the 42-year-old used a shaving mirror to spy on a group of girls aged 13 and 14 as they undressed at Splash swimming baths, in Stockton, on November 3.Dec 1 2008 Evening Gazette
Laws tighten on paedophile travel
Upstate man arrested in sex offender's fatal stabbing
JOHNSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) - An upstate man is charged with second-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of another man in Gloversville. Registered sex offender Raymond Pike was found dead on a bridge on the Rail Trail on August 15th. He'd been stabbed multiple times. Randy Green was arrested later. On Monday, he was indicted on six counts. Police say Green, Pike and another man were walking on the trail when Green pulled out a hunting knife and stabbed Pike. The two had been arguing throughout the day and police say Green claims the argument was over a stash of child pornography Pike allegedly had. Investigators found no evidence of child porn in Pike's home. After the stabbing, authorities say Green went to a camp on Great Sacandaga Lake and tried to burn his clothing and the hunting knife.
Pedophile ends his own life
Somewhere in Hysterical Canada...
Jail is not an easy place for people accused of sex crimes against children.
Pedophiles are scorned and reviled by other inmates, many of whom are fathers -- and some of whom were themselves the victims of childhood sexual abuse.
[Ed: the received wisdom is that other prisoners, otherwise hated by society, become these virtuous justice-dispensers, not because they themselves are cruel and sadistic, but because they are preventing the kind of "abuse" that created them. What nonsense! Many of the criminals in jail/prison are ignorant and vicious savages who relish the opportunity to see themselves, and to be seen, as having greater worth than "molesters". It is for this reason (and because their jailers look the other way) that sex offenders are particularly vulnerable in custody].
Meeting with a doctor several weeks after his arrest on child pornography charges in October 2007, Darren Philpott said he was afraid of being harmed by other inmates, and he had good reason for his fears.
He was assaulted at least once, attacked by another inmate while at a court appearance in Regina, and he had to be kept in segregation at the Regina Provincial Correctional Centre for his safety.
The months that followed Philpott's arrest would see him rapidly and visibly deteriorating, appearing increasingly haggard during his appearances in court, and looking ever more grim as additional charges were laid and the spectre of his future loomed large.
By the end of August 2008, Philpott, then 38, was facing a raft of new charges for sexually assaulting children, making and sharing child pornography, and voyeurism.
The investigation against Philpott was ongoing, and he told others he was expecting still more charges to be laid against him by police in Regina and elsewhere.
There was a plea deal on the table, and Philpott's lawyer had indicated in court that the case was close to a resolution.
Though neither the defence nor the Crown will confirm any details of the proposed plea bargain, a woman whose son was sexually assaulted by Philpott says she was told he was going to plead guilty and receive a life sentence. Other sources say the same thing.
Having already attempted to kill himself at least once while in custody, Philpott was on suicide watch, where inmates are checked by guards every 15 minutes and are barred from having items such as razors and pop cans, which they could use to harm themselves.
In late August or early September, Philpott hanged himself in his cell. His heart had stopped when he was discovered by correctional officers and cut down from the ceiling, but he was revived with CPR and made an almost miraculous recovery.
Then, on the evening of Sept. 24, left alone behind a closed door to shower, Philpott hanged himself again. Sources say he used a bedsheet to hang himself from a pipe, and he was blue and unconscious by the time he was discovered by guards.
A group of correctional officers and jail medical staff again performed CPR and were able to bring back a pulse, but the injuries Philpott suffered were too severe. An MRI in hospital showed no brain activity and Philpott was taken off life support two days later.
"He wanted to die. If someone wants to do it, they'll do it," a witness at the scene told the Leader-Post at the time.
"It's unfortunate, but it's one of those things. It's one of those stories."
But defence lawyer Noah Evanchuk is concerned that his client was able to commit suicide in jail, particularly after making a significant suicide attempt just weeks earlier. Evanchuk believes the charges Philpott was facing may have an impact on how the death is perceived.
"If the system breaks down for an individual like Darren Philpott, society doesn't seem to show any concern," Evanchuk said. "It could develop into a slippery slope where people who are charged with less shocking offences are put in a situation where this could happen. The system is supposed to be equal for everybody. The presumption of innocence doesn't stop applying because you're charged with some serious offences."
A man who was close to Philpott says he, too, has questions about Philpott's death, and wonders if more could have been done to prevent it.
The man says he doesn't know why someone who is suicidal would be left alone to shower, for instance, and he questions how Philpott managed to have a bedsheet in the shower room.
"It just doesn't make sense," said the man, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
In Saskatchewan, a coroner's inquest is held whenever an inmate dies of unnatural causes while in custody. Though the inquest will not be formally confirmed until Philpott's autopsy results are completed, a Justice Ministry official says it is expected to go ahead sometime next year.
A review of Philpott's death has already been conducted inside the jail, but Corrections and Public Safety spokeswoman Judy Orthner says information about the internal investigation or its findings will not be made public.
Philpott's charges were unceremoniously stayed in court a few days after his death, and the Crown's file is now formally closed.
But it is not over. At Regina's Integrated Child Exploitation Unit, police investigators continue to work hard on the case, and will likely be doing so for many years. Officers continue to painstakingly examine each photo and video in Philpott's collection of child pornography, trying to identify more of Philpott's victims, and looking for locations, other offenders, and clues that may be of use in the ongoing fight against child sexual abuse around the globe.
"Even though he may not be here, there is still lots of work to be done ...," said Det. Sgt. Dave Wyatt. "I'm sure you are aware this is international, there's other agencies all across this world that are interested in what's going on."
Wyatt says police are working to track down as many of Philpott's victims as possible to find out if the children are OK, and make sure they can get help. The victims also need to know that their images are still circulating.
"Their pictures are out there," said Wyatt. "Who is to say they don't come across themselves? Because some of them are posted on Internet sites."
For Laura*, whose son was sexually assaulted by Philpott just over a year ago, the horror she has experienced did not end with Philpott's death.
"It's something I think about always," she said. "I think about it when I go to bed, I think about it when I wake up. I haven't been able to forgive myself or move on, and now I hope I can somewhat.
"I'm glad he's dead, but I also don't think he suffered enough. He's just ruined so many kids' and families' lives. It doesn't just destroy a child, it destroys a whole family."
Laura says her son stopped having nightmares about Philpott after he died, but the nightmares Philpott created for the boy in real life are ongoing. A video of her seven-year-old, Colby*, has already been found during a child pornography investigation in California, and Laura says she's gotten strange phone calls from men in the United States.
Laura has been haunted by the idea that another pedophile will track down one of her children after seeing pictures provided by Philpott. It's a new fear that remains strong, even as Philpott's presence in her life starts to fade.
Michelle*, too, finds limited comfort in the fact that Philpott is no longer a physical threat to her family. She knows that, although Philpott may be gone, in many ways the ugly mark he left on her life is only beginning to show.
Michelle's son, Brandon*, is still struggling with being molested by his former mentor and friend, and the boy is deeply angry that he was fooled by someone he trusted. Unable to get her son into counselling while the case was still before the courts, Brandon now refuses to go. "Why?" he asked his mom. "It's over."
But Michelle knows it's not.
"Where in my son's life will we see the effects of Darren Philpott?" she said. "Will we see it in drugs? Will we see it in alcohol? Will we see it in suicide attempts? Or, Brandon having such a good relationship with the police, is my kid going to turn around to be the next child exploitation investigator?"
She clings to the hope that her son will overcome what happened to him, but she fears the worst.
The experience has had a profound impact on Michelle as well. She is on leave from work, and is thinking of a career change. Her relationship with her extended family has also been impacted, and she has a hard time trusting her children -- and herself -- to know if another man like Philpott ever comes into their lives.
"Darren Philpott hung himself, but there's millions of Darren Philpotts in our world still. There's tons," she said. "Darren's just one of many."
*The names Michelle, Brandon, Laura and Colby have been changed to protect the identity of the child victims.
This is the fifth in a six-part series, "Pedophile & Predator: The Darren Philpott Story."
Tomorrow: Questions without answers.
Thanksgiving Message!
This Thanksgiving we would like to take the opportunity to thank those whose bravery in the face of a vicious and unremitting witchhunt is greater than our own. The following song, from one such soul, is taken from Jonathan King's "Vile Pervert, The Musical". (The entire musical can be viewed here: http://www.vilepervert.com/ )
Posts
