Tuesday 29 May 2018

There is a paedophile

asking to be released back into the community - and people are not happy about it.
This man has offended in five different states over more than thirty years - at least that is what is recorded.  There may well be incidents nothing is known about.
But, he still wants to be released. Under present law he could be released too - even if under strict conditions.
It is unlikely those conditions would make much difference to him. Someone who knows him says he is a performer worthy of an Oscar in his ability to act the "I am reformed" role. 
The problem is that he is doing just that - performing. 
Paedophiles are generally expert at covering  up their crimes. They don't announce them to the world. They don't go to confession and tell of their sins. They don't secretly tell other people what they have done. 
Unless their victims speak out they rarely get caught. 
One of the problems of course is that their victims rarely speak out - or they delay telling anyone else. They may delay for years and that brings about other problems.
But, should someone like this paedophile be released back into the community? The argument is that he has "served his time" and that he "deserves another chance". 
When we say that we forget that his victims are serving a life sentence....and that they don't have another chance. We also forget that it seems he isn't sorry for what he did - just sorry he got caught. 
When I was in my teens I attended a meeting to plan a camp for disadvantaged children. One of the people running that meeting disturbed me - "gave me the creeps" is how I described it. I  backed out of being involved and so did someone who is still a friend. We just didn't feel comfortable about him. Other people couldn't understand it because he was "such a nice man" and "doing so much for the community". At one point  he won an award for his work and then.....
Yes, he was a paedophile. All the wonderful work he seemed to be doing was aimed at one thing...giving him unlimited access to vulnerable children who weren't going to say anything.
I have forgotten how he got caught now but I can remember one of the people who had continued to help plan and run the multiple camps he ran saying to me, "How did you know?"
P... was shattered by her failure to pick up his behaviour. She felt responsible and she ceased to work at something she loved because of it.
I really can't answer that. It was just "something about him". E.... felt the same way.  Perhaps we were still just young enough to sense something that adults don't sense?
He's dead now. If he wasn't would I be saying "lock him up and throw away the key"? Probably.
 

1 comment:

jeanfromcornwall said...

I don't think you have to be young to pick up those vibes. I still see people who I would have trusted my cildren to, and people who I would have had walled in, and there is nothing to chose between them in general behaviour and demeanour. I do belive that some people (you, for instance) have a better developed sense of what underlies people's social behaviour, and can "read" them in depth, instead of just looking at what is on the surface.