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.
Pedophile ends his own life
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/ )
"Advocates": Imprison sex offenders; keep psychiatric services
The origins of the child porn panic
An excerpt from one of many excellent pieces on the website, "Inquisition 21st Century"
The child pornography panic started in 1976 when Robin Lloyd, who was a correspondent for NBC, published a book For Money or Love: Boy Prostitution in America. Lloyd initially put forward a figure of 30,000 male child prostitutes working in the USA at that time. The figure was never scientifically or empirically proven and was, according to the author, a ‘gut hunch’ that he used to throw at law enforcement officers to gauge their reaction. They came back that the figure was possibly too conservative so he increased it tenfold and came up with the figure of 300,000 underaged male prostitutes. He also put forward the notion in the book, again with no research, that many of them were also involved in pornography and thus the origins of the child pornography panic were sown.
Later on, when he appeared before the Illinois Legislative Investigating Commission, which was investigating the claims, he admitted that he couldn’t substantiate the figures nor could he supply any sources for them. As a journalist, he broke just about every rule in the book but, as a sensationalist, he was, well, sensational.
His mythical figure of 300,000 children involved in pornography was taken up by Judianne Densen-Gerber, the director of Odyssey House, a chain of residential treatment clinics for drug addicts - it was also used by the European Council of Ministers who in a report on child exploitation in 1986 claimed that: ‘a study of boy prostitutes had suggested that there were 300,000 boy prostitutes in the United States, many of whom are designated runaways’.
Densen-Gerber used this figure to extrapolate her own figures, reasoning that there must be at least as many females as males involved in the industry, which took the figure up to 600,000 and then she doubled it again because she reckoned that there must be twice as many in reality, as only half the real number would be detected. In this way she arrived at the mystical figure of 1.2 million children involved in the production of child pornography in the USA alone. She used this figure as definitive when she appeared before a congressional committee in 1977 and again when she gave evidence to the UK House of Commons Committee, which led to the 1978 Protection of Children Act, on which Operation Ore was based.
Judianne Densen-Gerber was a controversial figure, but one who had, through the sheer force of her personality, the ear and patronage of various powerful politicians who were coerced into supporting her drug rehabilitation empire, Odyssey House, which she’d started in 1966. By the time she found her new role as the guardian of youth her empire was being given $3,000,000 a year in federal and state funding and had operations running all over the US and Australia. But it began to unravel in 1979 when Attorney General Robert Abrams launched an investigation into alleged financial mismanagement at Odyssey after former staff members and patients claimed that private donations and government funds were used to maintain Densen-Gerber's jet-set lifestyle
Moreover, there was considerable disquiet about the intensely racist and abusive methods she used in her organization. For example, she was reported to have tied young black people to chairs and then invited the white members of her facility to spit on them. Her Mabon program on Ward's Island, supposedly to assist addicted mothers had included women who were not addicts but needed temporary shelter for themselves and their children to shield them from abusive partners. On at least three occasions, when these women tried to leave, Densen-Gerber ordered her staff to keep them in the program by refusing to release their children, as she needed the money. Mobilization for Youth had to obtain a writ of habeas corpus to get two of the children returned to their mother. *
She was also exploiting two teenage prostitutes, who were not addicts, in national-television appearances instead of helping them. The two young women were housed and counted as addicts to help obtain extra funding. They were subjected to strip searches, including rectal examinations, when they entered and left the building. Their personal belongings were confiscated, and they were forced to wear signs round their necks with humiliating messages written on them and donkey’s ears if they complained about their treatment or broke one of her myriad rules.
Her staff had to pledge their personal loyalty to her, including lighting candles to honour her, and she used the inmates as personal servants catering to her every whim. Many of the inmates were not allowed to leave even after their treatment program had finished in order to increase the headcount and thus the funding. The treatment itself was disorganized and unclear and, in most instances the staff themselves had no idea how to implement it. The inmates wrote their own evaluations and there were no follow-ups to determine whether the discharged inmates had relapsed. She would not allow the inmates to have any physical contact and even holding hands would result in harsh sanctions.
She once famously remarked “There are times when, as in war, children must be sacrificed for other long range ends.” This is a slogan that seems to have been taken to heart by many of the people who are making such a good living out of the child porn panic.
She had tried to link the issue of child pornography and drug abuse by stating that it was because of youthful sexual experiences that many people went on to become addicts. A viewpoint that is still enthusiastically endorsed in government and ‘child care’ circles even today. Many people have asserted, with no little justification, that she started her child porn crusade in order to deflect the public’s attention away from the more unsavory aspects of her life. Eventually the Adams enquiry found she was indeed misusing the funds, which she promised to pay back but never did. She died in 2005 in ignominy.
To further her crusade, she teamed up with Sergeant Lloyd Martin, a vice cop in the Los Angeles Police Department and himself a controversial figure. He began working in the field of sexual exploitation of children in 1971 in Los Angeles after being appointed by Ed Davis who was then the chief of police. He was assigned to the pornography squad in 1973 and founded the Sexually Exploited Child (SEC) unit in 1976.
Martin pushed for every police department in the country to set up a Sexually Exploited Child unit, which has pretty much happened, plus more: there are now a considerable number of both state and federal units, for example the FBI's undercover operation, code-named ‘Innocent Images’. Other agencies include the US Customs Cyber smuggling Center, and the International Child Pornography Investigation and Coordination Center, founded in 1996. In 1999, the FBI increased its number of online child pornography task forces from one to ten. Just about every police force (including those in Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand) now has its own child pornography and/or child sexual abuse unit. Estimates put the number of police officers alone working in this field at over 50,000 and that does not include customs agents, the FBI, USPIS and so on.
Martin admitted that children can and do initiate sexual activity with adults. In his testimony at the Kildee-Murphy hearings that preceded the first child pornography statute, he said, “The most difficult concept for most people to understand and accept is that very often these children are consenting partners in the sexual activity. In some cases they initiate the sexual activity with direct propositions or with seductive behavior.” Which rather puts paid to the assertion that all child-adult relationships are abusive. Particularly when he followed it up by saying: “Only 1 case in 200 involves a child who is the victim of force.” He also notes that that the relationship between a man and boy is often very warm and affectionate. His definition of a paedophile, which not surprisingly hasn’t been echoed by other members of the child abuse industry, is: “Somebody paying more attention to the child than the parent would.”
He seemed to have little interest in heterosexual paedophiles, but directed his ire instead at homosexual relationships. He covered up his intense homophobia by saying that he was only after men who had relationships with boys, an action which he reckoned was worse than death. Because, by his reasoning, death was over quickly but the scars of an adolescent (or indeed any) homosexual relationship will live with the person for ever.
Martin later had to take psychiatric leave from his post at the LAPD and was finally forced to quit for harassing witnesses and, unsurprisingly, falsifying evidence.
Gerber-Densen and Martin bounced around the USA in 1976 and 1977 making more and more outrageous claims, culminating in Martin stating on television that "pedophiles actually wait for babies to be born so that, just minutes after birth, they can grab the post-fetuses and sexually victimize them." ** He also went on to claim that ‘police have found evidence that Mexican children are being smuggled into California in specially constructed cars. They lay eight children under the floorboards and fender wells, they stuff those kids in. Then they take them across the border, put them into a hotel, and clean them up’. He said that these children were smuggled in for use by sadists ‘who can only achieve sexual gratification by torture and killing’. Densen-Gerber, not to be outdone, said that foreign children are smuggled into America ‘primarily for the purpose of killing. An American youngster has a school record and a family. But if a child has been taken off the streets of Guadalajara or Acapulco, it's much easier." She also claimed that American children are being sold to rich Arabs because ‘in their world, blond, fair-haired children would get a higher price’. Which, in my mind contradicted her previous assertion regarding American kids.
The fact that these claims were never substantiated, nor - despite millions of dollars being pumped into investigations – has there has never been a proven case of a single ‘snuff’ movie being made, didn’t stop the press from getting in on the act. In the national periodicals during 1977 dozens of articles appeared; even the New York Times, a newspaper not known for sensationalism, printed 27 articles that year compared to one in the previous 2 years.
A Time article on April 4 1977, called ‘Child's Garden of Perversity’, described horrific scenes such as a movie of a ‘ten-year-old girl and her eight-year-old brother in fellatio and intercourse’. It was later found to be false. And in May 1977, the Chicago Tribune reported that ‘child pornography has become a nation-wide multi-million dollar racket that is luring thousands of juveniles into lives of prostitution’ and exploiting up to 100,000 children at any time. Again it was a lie.
This press hysteria culminated in May 1977 in the popular television journalistic series ‘Sixty Minutes’, devoting a program to child pornography. This was so shocking that a flood of letters to politicians ensued, even though it was subsequently proved to be untrue as well.
Other firebrands emerged, again primarily targeted at the gay community but under the child abuse banner, like Anita Bryant. Although she did not testify at the Kildee-Murphy hearings, she screamed loudly enough about the homosexual threat to children to have her viewpoint heard and the press loved quoting her. It is interesting to note that her charity, the ‘Ministries for Counseling Homosexuals’ was later charged with financial mismanagement; 1978 tax returns show that the Ministries raised $1 million, of which $450,000 was spent on ‘direct fees for raising contributions’, including the anti-porn and anti-child abuse activities of the, illegal, subsidiary Protect America's Children. Only $150 was ever spent on counseling.
Foremost amongst the politicians was Congressman Mario Biaggi, who was also noteworthy after having to resign from congress after being found guilty of embezzling public funds, diverting defence contracts and tax evasion. He was actually using the subject of child porn to prove how unworkable Reagenomics were, so he turned it into a political bunfight. He was forever interviewing almost tearful social workers who were complaining that their child protection activities were under threat because of the budget cuts. He opined: “There is a highly sophisticated and organized child pornography industry operating in this nation. It has already captured an estimated 300,000 children nationally as victims. It has produced 264 different publications sold nationally, depicting pornographic activities involving children as young as three years old. The industry is both national and international in scope. Large quantities of pornographic materials are imported each year, primarily from Europe. Hundreds of children from Mexico are smuggled into this nation each year to engage in child pornography.”
If indeed the market was this size, then you’d expect the child pornographers to have an army of lawyers and lobbyists fighting for them. Think of all the other things that are intrinsically bad for society and the planet that are not sanctioned, even encouraged, because they can muster the funds, legal clout and the political wherewithal to fight their corner. There are armies of lawyers and lobbyists in Washington who’d take up any banner as long as the pay was right. Yet not a single person spoke up for the industry, which, in itself should have set alarms bells ringing as to the real size of the market. Even at this early stage the people in the know must have realized they were grossly exaggerating the market but, obviously, it didn’t suit their purposes to let the cat out of the bag.
On the back of this hysteria a subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives was formed, before which both Densen-Gerber and Martin appeared and they held a series of hearings on the subject which lasted until late that year. The chairman of the committee was Representative John Conyers Jr., who had organized the hearings to pass judgment on the proposal of Representatives Kildee and Murphy for a first Federal law against child pornography. Conyers took the figure of children involved in the ‘industry’ from Densen-Gerber and doubled it again because it didn’t include, at least according to him, all the 16 and 17 year olds involved, even though they’d supposedly been counted in already. CONTINUE READING
LIFE AS A SEX OFFENDER
New Carlisle, Ohio — A registered sex offender, he committed his crime 10 years ago. Now he has a wife and three kids.
Being a registered sex offender has cost him jobs and made finding employment difficult. He and his wife say that their kids are teased at school, and other parents are wary of letting their owns kids play with their children or stay overnight at their house.
The man and his wife agreed to speak with the News-Sun in return for their names be withheld from the article. They fear that they or their children might be harassed.
"I don't want or need that kind of attention," the man said.
According to court records and interviews, the man was convicted of third-degree sexual assault on a 14-year-old girl in a case out of Wyoming in 2000. He was given a suspended prison sentence of one to three years. His probation was revoked after he was brought up on a breach of peace charge and after police witnessed a girl under 18 getting into his truck in a high school parking lot.
He then served 18 months in prison. He has been out ever since, but has had difficulty adjusting to life as a registered sex offender.
"(After I get a job) there will be a phone-call saying "There's a sex offender working for you,' and I get fired just like that," he said. "People automatically think the worst."
In July, his neighbor hung two signs in a front window alerting the neighborhood that he had, "raped a 14 year old girl in Wyoming who was under the influence of alcohol at the time."
The neighbor then filed a civil suit against him, seeking injunctive relief on the grounds that he was violating Ohio law by living within 1,000 feet of a school.
In fact, two registered sex offenders live within 1,000 feet of New Carlisle Elementary School. He is one of them, but he committed his offense before July 31, 2003, the date Ohio's residency restrictions for sex offenders went into effect. A ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court this year determined that offenders who moved to their homes or committed their offenses before July 31, 2003, aren't bound by the restrictions.
State Rep. Jimmy Stewart, R-Athens, wants to change that. In August he introduced House Bill 607, which would effectively make the residency restrictions retroactive.
"As long as they are registered sex offenders, they are still quote unquote 'paying their debt to society,' " Stewart said. "This is one of the most heinous crimes."
The way his bill is written, the restrictions would apply to all sex offenders in the state, regardless of when they committed their offenses or when they moved into their homes. That would mean that some offenders now in compliance would have to look for a new place to live.
This November, Stewart won a race for a state Senate seat. He said he expected there to be hearings on the bill this month after the state legislature reconvenes or later on in December.
In the meantime, the neighbor said he has no plans to take his signs down. Neither will he so much as speak to the sex offender. "I haven't talked to him," the neighbor said in a phone interview. "I don't intend to."
Margie Slagle, an attorney with the Cincinnati-based Ohio Justice & Policy Center, which litigated the residency restrictions issue in the Ohio Supreme Court, is now representing the sex offender. In September, she filed a motion to dismiss the civil suit.
Though she isn't opposed to all sex offender registry notification legislation, she believes residency restrictions have the potential to endanger the public. They can isolate offenders and sever their ties to support systems.
"Studies on recidivism show a huge correlation between employment, family support, housing and re-offending," she said. "They're coming back into the community. Why are we putting up barriers that prevent them from succeeding?"
Last month, in response to Slagle's motion to dismiss, the neighbor filed a motion for a stay, pending the outcome of House Bill 607.
Probation ordered in beating of Appleton Sex Offender
APPLETON — A 22-year-old Appleton man, who attacked another man because he was a registered sex offender, was placed on probation Friday for 18 months.
Outagamie County Circuit Judge Dee Dyer imposed and stayed a one-year jail sentence for David T. Starkey, who was convicted of disorderly conduct and bail jumping.
At a Nov. 5 jury trial, Starkey was found not guilty of the more serious charge of substantial battery but was found guilty on the misdemeanor charges.
"I am really sorry for everything that happened," Starkey said.
Starkey beat a 33-year-old Appleton man on Aug. 30, 2007. Starkey had targeted the victim because of his status as a registered sex offender, according to the criminal complaint.
The victim required hospitalization for treatment of extensive facial injuries and lost teeth.
[Ed: So, here's a clear illustration of how we, as a society, ajudge two different kinds of criminals. On the one hand, we think that a demonstrably violent crime in which the perpetrator beats the victim, a registered sex offender (having located him on the sex offender website), so severely that he is hospitalized and "loses teeth," warrants probation and not jail time. On the other hand, the man he has beaten was reported to have been convicted 15 or more years ago for having consensual sex with his then-14 year old girlfriend. He was 19 at the time. And yet he is still required to wear the scarlet letter of "sex offender". The message couldn't be more clear: maim or kill a sex offender and it will be as if you had attacked a subhuman who is worth far less than the rest of society. This is comparable to the value that the Jim Crow south placed upon "nigger" lives. ]
Vigilante hunted down alleged paedophile
County Durham, U.K.
A vigilante who armed herself with a large kitchen knife to attack an alleged paedophile has been spared jail.
Michelle Smith said she was "going to kill" the Sunderland man who she believed had been involved in a sexual offence against a child, and also his partner.
Newcastle Crown Court heard how the potential victims of the knife attack were not at home and Smith was arrested when a neighbour contacted the police.
The 39-year-old told officers: "I took a large knife with me.
"I was going to stick them both.
"He's not going to get away with it.
"I was going to kill both of them, I had a lot of vodka to drink to give me courage."
Smith, of Patrick Crescent, South Hetton, admitted having an offensive weapon.
Defence barrister Julian Smith said Smith was drunk when the incident happened.
Mr Recorder Hatton told her: "You cannot take the law into your own hands in the way that you did.
"You cannot take weapons to other people."
The judge sentenced Smith to a community order for two years with supervision.
[Ed: And now for one of those delightful reader comments which appeared below the original story]:
J.Moffatt, chilton says...
5:39pm Fri 21 Nov 08
Man killed himself after (false) paedophile allegation
Brighton, U.K.
A man wrongly accused of being a paedophile suffocated himself at home.
William Chandler, who was known as Bill, placed a plastic bag over his head after police were told he was grooming a young boy for sex.
But an inquest in Brighton was told detectives could find no evidence the 31-year-old had behaved in any improper way with the youngster.
A coroner suggested Mr Chandler had killed himself because he could not cope with the false allegations.
He was found dead at his flat in Eaton Gardens, Hove, on September 1.
Days earlier police had received a complaint from the boy’s father about online computer messages exchanged between his son and Mr Chandler.
A police investigation concluded there had been no offence committed and no sexual grooming had taken place.
The police had been handed 12 pages of transcripts of online conversations between the boy and Mr Chandler, which took place on August 25 and 26.
Detective Sergeant Vanessa Britton, of Sussex Police, told the inquest: “In my opinion it is a conversation between a curious young male and a role model he can trust.”
Mr Chandler, who worked for the Learning and Skills Council, was found after police were alerted by his worried family who had not been able to contact him and he had failed to turn up at work.
He had suffered from depression in the past and had left a suicide note addressed to his mother. The contents of the note were not read out at the hearing but the inquest heard the note did not mention the allegations about the boy.
Mr Chandler, a music lover, was described as a kind and cheerful man by his friends and family.
Dr Karen Henderson, Brighton and Hove’s assistant deputy coroner, said she concurred completely with the police report that there had been absolutely no evidence of any sexual grooming or paedophile activity.
She said he had been accused of something that is “every man’s nightmare”. Dr Henderson added: “Once accused it is so difficult to refute. There is no suggestion that his relationship with the boy was anything but loving and caring.
“I am sure he was a very fine and upstanding member of the community.”
She recorded a verdict that Mr Chandler took his own life.
[Ed: In previous centuries many of those accused of witchcraft also took their own lives rather than endure the hell which was sure to follow. Pity that in some ways we have made no progress.]
Accused molester shot dead
Accused molester shot dead
Contra Costa prosecutor charged with raping colleague
Deputy District Attorney Michael Gressett, 51, is accused of tying and binding the woman at his home in Martinez on May 8, according to a copy of the criminal complaint. Prosecutors filed 12 felony counts against him in Contra Costa County Superior Court, including rape, sodomy, oral copulation by force and forcible sexual penetration, with enhancements for using deadly weapons - the handgun and ice pick. They also accused Gressett of falsely imprisoning the woman in his vehicle the same day and threatening her with "a crime which would result in death." Gressett and his attorney, Michael Cardoza, strongly denied that he had done anything wrong. Cardoza said Gressett and the alleged victim had a consensual relationship. They spoke outside the Martinez courthouse after the charges were filed by the state attorney general's office. State prosecutors took over the case to avoid a possible conflict of interest for the Contra Costa district attorney, although Deputy Attorney General Peter Flores said the D.A. is helping with the investigation. Although the alleged crime took place in May, Gressett was not arrested until Oct. 2, a week after Martinez police say they learned of the incident. Flores would not discuss the reason for the delay. If convicted of all counts, Flores said, Gressett could be sentenced to life in prison. In court this morning, Gressett appeared upbeat as he waited for the arraignment to begin. He smiled several times as he joked with his defense team and said hello to other attorneys in the courtroom. Judge Charles Treat ordered Gressett to return to court Jan. 27 and to stay away from his accuser, a condition that Gressett called "perfectly acceptable." The alleged victim was not identified, but two sources close to the investigation have said she is also a deputy district attorney. Gressett is free on $1 million bail and is on paid administrative leave from the district attorney's office. "The truth will come out," Gressett said outside the Martinez courthouse. "I do feel sorry - this is painful for my family, my loved ones, my colleagues. I am standing now in disillusionment of the system. ... I hate this route we're taking, but it's probably the only way to have public vindication." Cardoza insisted that Gressett and the woman had a consensual relationship and sought to discredit her and the investigation, questioning why it took more than four months for the probe to begin. He said a trial will "hurt a lot of people" and said the woman had made the accusations because she was at risk of losing her job. Cardoza said Gressett and the woman had exchanged text messages that would prove they had a romantic relationship, but that those messages -as well as any other forensic evidence - had disappeared by the time she went to police. "She would have known that (text messages disappear) as a prosecutor," Cardoza said. "They let evidence go by the wayside. ... They both knew what the relationship was about, and that's why those text messages are so important." He also noted that Gressett has run unsuccessfully for district attorney three times, most recently in 2002, and said the district attorney's office - which is helping in the investigation - should recuse itself entirely. E-mail Marisa Lagos at mlagos@sfchroncile.com. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/21/MNHJ149JCO.DTL(11-21) 12:58 PST MARTINEZ -- A Contra Costa County sex crimes prosecutor pleaded not guilty today to charges that he tied up, raped and sodomized a colleague while threatening her with an ice pick and handgun.
High Court mulls sex abuse question Does intimate touching over the clothes merit six years in prison?
SALEM - An attorney for a former employee of the Hillsboro Boy's and Girl's Club told the Oregon Supreme Court Tuesday that six-plus years in prison for touching her clothed breasts to the back of a 12-year-old boy's head amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. A Washington County jury found Veronica Rodriguez, now 28, guilty of sex abuse in the first degree after Hillsboro investigators saw her breasts touch the boy's head while she ran her fingers through his hair at the club in 2005. At sentencing, now-retired Judge Nancy Campbell said the circumstances only merited one year and four months in prison instead of the prescribed sentence of six years and three months required by 1994's voter-approved Measure 11. Rodriguez and attorney Peter Garlan concede that Measure 11 is constitutional, but claim its application against Rodriguez violates Article 1, Section 16 - the proportionality clause of the Oregon Constitution. Rodriguez's case is combined with another appeal from Linn County, where 36-year-old Darryl Buck was convicted of first-degree sex abuse for touching a 13-year-old girl's clothed buttocks several times during a fishing trip. Garlan said the girl overreacted to Buck's using his hands to help her remain upright, and her "histrionics" had an effect on the jury. The judge agreed, and handed down a 17-month sentence, appropriate for the action, Garlan said. The state's Court of Appeals rejected both judge's decisions, and said both defendants should serve another five years. Garlan said while it was clear there was wrongdoing, the pair's actions didn't merit the same sentence as someone who committed obviously violent acts of sex abuse or those convicted of attempted rape or attempted sodomy, as Measure 11 requires. Rodriguez was an exemplary employee at the Boy's and Girl's Club, praised by her superiors, Garlan argued. "There is no doubt that Miss Rodriguez, but for this offense, was an extremely positive influence on this victim," Garlan said. Even the boy's mother praised Rodriguez for helping him deal with his troubled past. But police and prosecutors said the relationship rose to an inappropriate level, with the boy seen kissing her on the cheek and sitting in her lap. A second charge of sex abuse ended in a mistrial. When Assistant Attorney General Timothy Sylwester began his arguments, Justice Thomas Balmer took him to the wood shed immediately, noting sharply that Sylwester's brief continually used the word "rubbing" to describe the physical contact between Rodriguez and the boy, when that word was never mentioned in testimony. "You have strong constitutional, legal argument here," Balmer said tersely. "Why did you mischaracterize testimony?" Sylwester said he didn't feel it was a mischaracterization, but apologized if he'd made a mistake. Department of Justice spokesperson Jake Weigler said Wednesday voters passed the measure to eliminate judges' discretion in a range of crimes. Clearly, Rodriguez and Buck fell within that range, he said. If Measure 11 is to be changed, it should be by the will of the voters or the legislature, he said. "This court never has struck down a sentence within a permissible scheme," Sylwester said. Justice Robert D. Durham asked both attorneys if it was the role of the court to make an evaluation of offenders, when the law only mentions "the offense." Should the court treat each offense as if it were a videotape of the act that turns on when the abuse begins and turns off when it ends? "Does that imply there should be no investigation into the actor?" Durham asked. And did that also imply there should be no consideration of whether a defendant lied on the stand, or lied to the police? Sylwester answered: "You don't just look at the good stuff, you look at the bad stuff, too." As to Garlan's argument that some kinds of sex abuse were worse than others, Sylwester said it was defined by law as sexual touching with sexual intent. "The victim has been violated, whether it lasted for five seconds or 10 minutes," he said. The law says sex abuse occurs when it "subjects another person to sexual contact and the victim is less than 14 years of age." Sexual contact is "any touching of the sexual or other intimate parts of a person or causing such person to touch the sexual or other intimate parts of the actor for the purpose of arousing or gratifying the sexual desire of either party." The Supreme Court is expected to return an opinion within six months.[Ed: Few have any idea of what actual offenses "molesters" have really committed. They hear the word "molest" and they immediately think of the most egregious sex acts committed forcefully and without consent. The range of qualifying offenses has grown dramatically over the years to include even such terrible assaults as running ones fingers through a child's hair and giving a hug. This is the hysterical reality of sex offense prosecution and persecution today. I remain hopeful that one day most of society will look back at this period of injustice with the same horror with which we now regard the Salem Witchhunts of the 17th Century.]
The Hillsboro Argus
Naked Jogging Priest Must Register As Sex Offender
Campaigning paedophile given lifetime bans
Making Punishments Fit the Most Offensive Crimes
Georgia's sex offender law blocks religious redemption
PERSONA NON GRATA: Omar Howard's parole officer told him he shouldn't give testimony during church services.
Lori Collins, an ordained minister from Henry County who found religion in prison, is no longer allowed to work with church groups that perform prison outreach.
Andrew Norton of Cobb County has been told he can't sing in his church choir or help set up for church events. Steven Lee Williams of Polk County is forbidden from playing drums at services.
Churches frequently invite College Park's Omar Howard to offer testimony about how God rescued him from a life of violent crime. Eventually, he hopes to join the ministry. For the time being, however, Howard risks a mandatory 10-year term if he so much as performs a Bible reading before a congregation.
This past Thursday, lawyers with the Southern Center for Human Rights argued in federal court that a new law unconstitutionally criminalizes religious practice by making it illegal for people on Georgia's sex offender registry to volunteer at a church. A judge's ruling is expected within weeks.
It was the latest challenge to a controversial law that targets registered sex offenders with wide-ranging restrictions and stiff punishments. Initially authored by state House Majority Leader Jerry Keen, R-St. Simons, and adopted in 2006, the law was overhauled by the Legislature this year after large chunks of it had been thrown out by various courts.
Even so, the chipping away continus. Last month, the state Supreme Court struck down a provision to send homeless sex offenders to prison for being unable to register a valid address with their county sheriff's office. The plaintiff in that suit, William James Santos, had spent a year in a Hall County jail and was facing a life sentence for failing to register his address – even though he didn't have an address.
If you think aspects of the sex offender law seem to defy common sense, welcome to the club.
"My parole officer doesn't understand it," says Howard, the would-be minister. "He told me it's safer just to stay away from church."
Howard, 34, admits he used to be a rough character. He spent 14 years behind bars for voluntary manslaughter, armed robbery and false imprisonment of a minor during a 1993 home invasion. That last charge landed him on the sex offender registry despite not having been convicted of a sex crime.
During his long incarceration, Howard got religion; he led Bible study and became a chaplain's aide. "My goal is to do full-time ministry," he says. "That was the only hope I had that got me through my time."
After entering probation last year, he devoted much of his time talking at churches about his experiences in an effort to warn at-risk young men away from the thug life. He's even spoken at the invitation of the Georgia Department of Corrections and the State Board of Pardons and Paroles.
But as of July 1, when the newest incarnation of the sex offender law went into effect, Howard had to give up most of his church-related activities. The law offers no guidance as to what constitutes volunteering; His parole officer has told him to no longer sing in the choir or take part in revivals, seminars or prayer vigils. Howard still accepts invitations to visit churches, but he's limited to sitting in the congregation. Offering testimony is off-limits.
In a court brief, Howard complains that the law "interferes with my religious freedom and prohibits me from expressing my strongly held religious beliefs." He adds that none of his previous church activities involved being around minors unsupervised.
Also testifying, Andrea Shelton, founder and president of Heartbound Ministries, a prison outreach program, told Judge Clarence Cooper that "religion makes recidivism less likely" for all convicts. Shelton explained that most churches routinely perform background checks on would-be volunteers before giving them positions of responsibility. The chance that a church would give a registered sex offender free access to children is fairly slim, she said.
Permitting Howard, who volunteered at Heartbound in the past, to continue work with churches will allow others to "see that redemption is possible," added Shelton, her voice choking with tears. "Rehabilitation rarely takes place without redemption."
Ironically, Rep. Keen, whose law criminalizes religious volunteerism for sex offenders, is the former head of the Georgia Christian Coalition.
Collins, the Henry County woman, also took the witness stand to explain that, although she's ordained, her parole officer told her she can't even lead an adult prayer group in her home. Said Collins, who served three years in prison for sleeping with an underage boy: "I don't know what I can and cannot do."
That's the problem with the law, argued Southern Center attorney Gerry Weber: It's too vague.
"The law prevents 'volunteering,' but doesn't define what that is," Weber told the judge. "Law enforcement is making up the rules as it goes along."
The result is that enforcement is likely to vary greatly, depending on how each county's sheriff interprets the volunteering provision. In one Georgia county, a sex offender was prosecuted for playing the piano during services, Weber said.
It's no surprise that the revamped law lacks well-articulated guidelines for determining what behavior is illegal. Keen was never much interested in clarity or even enforceability. Back in 2006, he indicated that his goal was to make life so difficult, costly and perilous for sex offenders that they'd be forced to leave Georgia. Speaking at a Senate hearing, he said, "Candidly, senators, they will in many cases have to move to another state."
Certainly, Keen's law has succeeded in harrassing Wendy Whitaker, a Columbia County woman who was the subject of a CL cover story in July 2006 when she was ordered to leave her house because it was within 1,000 feet of a church-based child-care facility. That provision eventually was struck down.
Whitaker, lead plaintiff in the Southern Center constitutional challenge, was back in court last week. trying to keep her home. She'd moved back after the state Supreme Court struck down the law late last year, ruling the restrictions made it practically impossible for sex offenders to remain in their homes.
This time, Cooper ruled her lawyers failed to establish that the restrictions barring her from occupying her home rose to the level of banishment from the county. The judge appeared to be swayed by the argument that other sex offenders had managed to find some form of housing in Columbia County.
On the witness stand, Whitaker indicated that if she and her husband are forced to rent a place to live, in addition to paying their home mortgage, they'll likely face foreclosure. "It will be bad for us," she said.
Sex offender law mindlessly harsh
Sex offender killed outside game arcade
A North Miami man shot and mortally wounded Sunday night outside a children's amusement center in Lake Worth was a registered sex offender, according to state records.
Edner Eustache, 27, was shot at least twice in the ''upper part of his body'' at about 8:30 p.m. after a fist fight outside Fun Depot, 2003 10th Ave. North, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said.
Eustache was flown to Delray Medical Center, where he died, said Teri Barbera, a sheriff's office spokeswoman.
Witnesses told deputies that three men were involved in the fight in the parking lot, and that two drove away in a white van and green car.
In February 2002, Eustache registered in Broward County as a sex offender who had assaulted a minor, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records.
In three arrests in Miami-Dade and Broward counties since December 2007, Eustache was charged with failure to obey state registration laws for sexual offenders. In the case of a Dec. 1 arrest by Miami-Dade police, he pleaded guilty to the charge, records show.
It was not immediately clear what Eustache was doing outside Fun Depot, where young people gather to play video games and laser tag.
Fun Depot general manager Eddie Naphan said he watched security camera footage Monday morning but did not see anyone who looked like the victim enter or leave the park's arcade in the hour before the shooting.
Naphan said the security cameras showed a car sitting by a trash bin in Fun Depot's parking lot.
''You can't see anything but headlights,'' he said.
As detectives paced outside Fun Depot, patrons continued to hit baseballs in the batting cages, which overlooked the crime scene.
''I've been around here for 20 years, and I can tell you we've never had an incident like this near this place,'' said Naphan, whose father opened Fun Depot in 1988..
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