Special Article: Adverse effects of hysteria

Moral panics pertaining to children, sexuality and minor attracted people, don't only cost the taxpayer money, but have many unintended or otherwise negative consequences - especially for minors. While the obsession with Sex Offenders and creating "special laws" for them stretches back many decades, we list just a few 21st century news sources as examples, and are well aware that we must have neglected many more recent examples, which you may alert us to. We try instead to present the breadth of unintended consequences related to the war on Sex Offenders. Other sites are more thorough, for example:

• Sex Offender Research: Murder
• Sex Offender Research: Suicide

The inconsequential nature of many acts that might force a person to register as a sex offender has not only been attacked by SOL Reform activists, but increasingly mainstream charities and the media:

• SOL Research: Look who's on the Registry
• VIDEO: Shawna: A Life on the Sex Offender Registry

We have also compiled a few examples of abuse of authority on a separate page (some examples are in the gallery below).

Excerpt Graphic Library

We are in the process of creating a graphic database that allows text from this page and its sources to be posted to character-limited social media.

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  State of Ohio paralyzes a man who took photos of his 16 year old girlfriend whilst 18.
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  The patent corruption of Operation Avalanche.
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  Convicted by a talking bear. Timeslive.co.za, Mar 24, 2011.
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  Nazis target and murder an RSO and his wife, using the Registry. Many such cases.
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  Attack on historical sculpture.
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  Murder of NAMBLA Gay Activist.
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  The other side of religious SRA extremism
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  Month-long campaign of defamation against an academic.
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  Further defamation of an academic. Same happened to Thomas Hubbard, Richard Yuill and others.

Murder and suicide

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The number of suicides and murders that have taken place as a result of SORs and general sex-offender panic, run well into the hundreds per year (perhaps more) and are hard to document. Ambiguity concerning the scale of these wrongs, is in part due to the threat this information poses to America's prison/security-industrial complex and corrupted legal system. Bill Conradt - a man who was effectively hounded to death by a TV crew is perhaps the best known victim of America's punitive obsession with sexual offending.

Suicide

Unaffiliated site: SOI/Suicide.

Suicide is a common result of sex-laws. While documenting the full extent of sex-law suicides is not a project Newgon are working on right now due to our poor staffing, we would like to see a research project initiated within the next few decades after the unjust laws themselves have been eliminated. Others have already collected thousands of examples on various blogs listed in this article and affiliated with the SOL Reform Movement.

• Banned by Reddit for offering support to a MAP in crisis. (2023)

  "A few days ago, I was directed to a Reddit post where someone was suicidal because they realized they were attracted to children. I created an account on Reddit and posted a reply with all sorts of resources to help. Next day, I log in, and I’m permabanned from that Subreddit. No reason given. I appealed to the mods, and got no reply. I started attempting to message the user in crisis directly to offer them support, but it wouldn’t let me send messages. After sharing the screenshots on the fediverse, a user attempted to lookup my account, only to find that my account wasn’t accessible, thus meaning I am shadowbanned."

• New details emerge on man who died after hearing guilty verdict in Denton County (2022)

  "Shortly after the guilty verdict was announced in the 16th District courtroom, he began chugging what appeared to be murky water, according to people familiar with the case. At the suggestion of a county investigator, a bailiff checked on and found Leclair unresponsive in the holding cell next to the courtroom. [...] His victim had posted an ad under the personal section on Craigslist, according to the July 19, 2018, search warrant affidavit. Leclair, a corporate recruiter, replied to the ad, met with the victim and drove to a hotel where they had sex. He gave her $200, and she sent him a nude photograph via email. After their initial encounter, the victim told Leclair she was 14. Leclair continued to communicate with her for sex. According to the search warrant, they had three additional sexual encounters between them, one of which occurred at Leclair’s residence in Frisco. Two years later, in May 2019, Leclair’s girlfriend, Melody “Mel” Shae, discovered Leclair’s communication with the victim. She met with the victim — the victim said Shae had threatened her — and told her Leclair was, according to the search warrant affidavit, “grooming her.”"

• Feds push child-porn cases; penalty can be years in prison (2008)

  "In the Bay Area alone, five defendants facing child-porn charges have committed suicide over the past two years. This year, on the eve of a court appearance on child-porn charges in the spring, one of the defendants, Los Gatos businessman George Halldin was found dead in his car inside a burning warehouse. Authorities ruled it a suicide."

• Teacher charged with sex offence commits suicide (2008)

  "A RESPECTED Perth school-teacher committed suicide within hours of being charged with child sex offences. Jeff Cahill, 48, was the head of science at Carmel School, a Jewish college in Dianella. He was a finalist last year for the esteemed $50,000 Premier's Prize for Excellence in Secondary Science Teaching. Mr Cahill took his life on Friday, June 6, after detectives searched his home the previous day and charged him with child sex offences. Police were investigating allegations about sexual activities with a 15-year-old boy he met on the internet [...] Mr Cahill was well-respected in education circles and had written papers used to develop WA's high school science curriculum. A police source told The Sunday Times the boy went to Mr Cahill's Mt Lawley home on Sunday, May 11, where they engaged in sex. [...] It is alleged that though the sex was agreed to by both parties, it was illegal because the boy was under the age of consent."

• Pedophile Philpott ends his own life (2008)

  "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. [...] 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."

• Teacher kills himself after child porn charges (2008)

  "A QUEENSLAND teacher has committed suicide and another was taken to hospital after they were charged as part of Australia's largest anti-pedophile investigation. More than 90 men across Australia have been arrested or summonsed to court over the child porn sweep, including an Australian Federal Police officer, four teachers, youth workers, bankers and company directors, The Australian reports."

• Friends say child porn charges crushed ex-Marine (2007)

  "TAMPA - Tuesday was going to be Cody Lee Liberty's day of reckoning. In June 2005, the 26-year-old Iraq War veteran was arrested on 11 felony charges of possessing child pornography. On Tuesday he would go to court. He could plea bargain and suffer the brand of being a registered pedophile for the rest of his life. Or he could fight the charge and risk up to 55 years in jail. "I feel I'm backed into a corner and have to plead guilty, but I DID NOT commit the crimes," Mr. Liberty wrote on his MySpace Web site last Friday. The next evening, while Gasparilla festivities filled Tampa's streets, he killed himself."

• "UCAS worker's child porn shame (2009)

  "A FORMER languages teacher who worked for UCAS drowned himself because he feared his interest in child porn websites would be discovered, an inquest heard. Administrator at the university admissions service Graham Jowett, 60, had developed an "unhealthy interest in paedophilia" and felt guilty about it, his GP told an inquest in Gloucester. "He said he had drifted into internet paedophilic websites and photographs and he was very concerned his employers might find out about this," said Dr Alexander Owen." (...) "He asserted his belief that his interest in these images was innocent and he would never harm a child. "In my opinion he was a sensitive and slightly vulnerable individual who had developed an unhealthy interest in paedophilia." The inquest heard that before committing suicide in the River Severn, Mr Jowett destroyed his home computer and posted the key of his house to his brother. (...) He was found dead in the river by a canoeist at Wainlodes on June 17."

• "Ex-teacher takes own life after being accused of sexual relationship with student, 16, officials say (2023)

  "A former Florida high school teacher has died from an apparent suicide while facing trial for repeatedly having sex with a 16-year-old student who said she’d kept clothes and a toothbrush at his home." (...) "He’d been caught professing his love to the girl in a call monitored by cops — telling her that he could not wait for her to turn 18, according to the report. (...) The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office first started investigating in December after a restaurant owner reported to the principal that Maglio was sending flowers to a teen employee. (...) The girl contacted Maglio “and gave him a heads up about a possible investigation,” according to an affidavit cited by WPLG. When questioned, the student reportedly said: “I don’t want him to get in trouble. I’m in love with him.” The girl began to visit Magliko in his classroom after school because she was looking for “a mentor fatherly figure, but it escalated,” the document reportedly states. She said they began communicating on social media and had sex several times at Maglio’s apartment. The victim said she had left clothes and a toothbrush at his place. (...) "After Maglio’s death was confirmed, his attorney said that the late teacher’s “family, friends and many of his past students were saddened by the tragic loss of his life."

Registry-abetted Murder

The public availability of Sex Offender data has repeatedly allowed other criminals and vigilantes who believe they are doing God's work to carry out targeted attacks, sometimes even slaying family members of people on the registry. At least fifteen murders are known to have directly resulted from the public listing of details on a sex offender registry, with countless others (which we will exclude) still "unclear".

• Registered sex offender murdered in Sharon (2024)

  "A 25-year-old Sharon man has been denied bail after police say he fatally shot his downstairs neighbor. Portez Smith was arraigned Monday morning on charges of criminal homicide and first-degree murder for the shooting death of 31-year-old Jesse Grover on the front porch of his Logan Avenue home. A man identifying himself as a friend of Grover told detectives that the two were awakened by someone shouting outside the front door, claiming Grover was a pedophile. According to Pennsylvania’s Megan’s Law website, Grover has been registered as a Tier One sexual offender since 2015 following a conviction for corruption of minors."

  See also, Mirror US.

• Colorado woman with 'unrestrained hatred' for child predators learns fate for dismembering sex offender (2024)

  "A Colorado woman was sentenced to life in prison after shooting and killing a registered sex offender, then dismembering his body and dumping it in trash bags in a drainage ditch. Deka Simmons, 40, was convicted of murdering 48-year-old Daxcimo Ceja, who allegedly had a relationship with a 17-year-old girl when he was 25, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported. [...] Prosecutor Sharon Flaherty said in her closing arguments that Simmons killed Ceja simply because he was a registered sex offender. [...] Flaherty told the Colorado Springs Gazette that Simmons "has an unrestrained hatred for anyone who would molest a child to the point where it's become a 'fixation' and 'paranoia.'" [...] The police interviewed a witness who said Ceja was shot by Simmons in a garage, then dismembered, with the pieces of his body stored in a freezer before they were transported via a van to the dump site."

• QAnon vigilante found guilty in hit-list killing in California (2022)

  "A California man obsessed with QAnon conspiracy theories was convicted in the murder of a registered sex offender he had placed on a hit list. Rory Banks, of Wheatland, was found guilty last week of burglary and premeditated murder in the fatal shooting of 55-year-old Ralph Mendez, whom he personally marked for death as part of a vigilante campaign motivated by the right-wing conspiracy theory, reported The Appeal-Democrat. “Banks set out just after midnight on May 12, 2021, armed with two handguns, four knives, OC spray, strobe lights, a hit list with four names and addresses, and an intent to murder every person in Wheatland listed on California’s sex-offender registry,” said Yuba County district attorney Clint Curry. “Banks did not know any of them personally, but appointed himself judge, jury, and executioner.” [...] Prosecutors said Banks, who had a QAnon sticker on the back of his vehicle, was always on his phone using the Telegram social media app and "doing research" that ultimately led him to conclude his community was plagued by sex offenders."

• James Fairbanks sentenced: 40–70 years in murder of convicted sex offender (2020)

  "On May 16, 2020, Condoluci, 64, was found dead inside his home near 43rd & Pinkney St. Fairbanks sent an anonymous email to the media, including KMTV, and later admitted he was the one who sent the letter in which he detailed why he killed Condoluci. [...] It said he was looking for an apartment in the area, knew of Condoluci’s past and saw him staring at children."

Editor's note: Rather disturbingly, it appears that the misleading legal language (rape) used on the registry was an aggravating factor behind this registry murder, as well as the murderer's extremist "child protection" ideology. The victim's son and daughter appeared to be split on the matter, with the daughter even campaigning for the killer's release.

• 'They deserved to die': Vigilante who gunned down two registered sex offenders is unrepentant as judge sentences him to life in prison (2012)

  "A vigilante who gunned down two registered sex offenders in Washington state was unrepentant as he was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday. Patrick Drum, 34, told a judge that his victims deserved to die. Drum, who is himself a convicted felon, admitted to stalking Gary Lee Blanton, 28, and Jerry Wayne Ray, 57, and shooting them multiple times in their homes near Port Angeles, Washington."

• Murderer of two sex offenders sentenced to 44 years (2006)

  "Michael A. Mullen, 36, escaped a potential life sentence in a plea deal reached this week, ending a case considered one of the nation's worst cases of vigilantism against sex offenders. Mullen had confessed to the high-profile killings in letters to the news media, expressing a desire to be executed as a symbol of retribution against sex offenders. [...] In letters to The Seattle Times, Mullen said he targeted Eisses through the sex-offender registry and was surprised when he found two other sex offenders, Vasquez and James Russell, also were living in Eisses' Bellingham house. Mullen claims he interviewed the three before letting Russell go. "... Out of the three only one showed remorse or guilt. He is the one I let go," he wrote. "... I came to the conclusion that they must die, along with my own execution at the hands of the state, to drive my point home that 'WE' will protect 'our' children.""

• Neo-Nazis feign remorse, taunt family of murdered sex offender (2013)

  "In court, the South Carolina neo-Nazi couple seemed remorseful for the 2013 murder of a sex offender, but they changed their tunes when their life sentences were handed down. "Child molesters do not deserve to live," Jeremy Moody said as he was led out of a Union County courthouse Tuesday wearing handcuffs and striped prison scrubs. "Had to do it over again, I'd kill more." As his wife, Christine Moody, was placed into a police car for transport to prison, she added, "I have no regrets. Killing that pedophile was the best day of my life." The couple was charged in the murders of Charles Parker, 59, and his wife, Gretchen, 51, in July. The Moodys went to their Jonesville home pretending to have car trouble, entered the home and killed the couple, Union County Chief Deputy Perry Haney said at the time. [...] "See you perverts later," Jeremy Moody said as he was escorted out of the courtroom. "That's what child molesters get." [...] And did she have anything to say to Parkers' families? "May they die also," she said before officers placed her in the back of a squad car."

Further, from the same case:

• Homicide suspect calls victim 'pedophile' and 'demon' (2013)

"The victims were shot with a .380 handgun at close range and stabbed, according to Taylor. Taylor said surveillance video helped them identify and arrest Christine Moody, 36, and Jeremy Moody, 30, in connection with the Parkers' deaths. Both were arrested and charged with two counts of murder. [...] In court, Christine Moody told FOX Carolina that Charles Parker was a "pedophile" and a "demon." [...] According to the sheriff, Jeremy Moody told deputies he killed Charles Parker because he was a registered sex offender and planned to kill another registered sex offender on his list Wednesday had he not been caught, Taylor said. Taylor said Gretchen Parker was killed because she was with Charles Parker."

• Stephen Marshall (murderer): Wikipedia (2006)

  "Stephen Marshall (9 August 1985 – 16 April 2006) was an American-Canadian vigilante who searched publicly available sex offender registries in the United States for the names and addresses of convicted sex offenders before traveling to Maine in the Northeastern United States and murdering two. [...] After his suicide, authorities investigated his computer. They found an animation of Jesus armed with an assault rifle while knocking on someone's door. Witnesses reported that Marshall had converted to Christianity shortly before the killings. At one point, he referred to pedophiles as "scums of the Earth"."

• Among Marshall's victims was William Elliott. At age 19, Elliott had voluntary sex with a 15-year-old girl who was turning 16 (Age of Consent in their state Maine) in 3 weeks. The girl’s parents found out about this, and Elliott was accused of sexual abuse of a minor and spent 2 years in prison. After leaving prison, William decided to live separately from his mother, bought a trailer and got a job as a construction worker. On April 16, 2006, Stephen Marshall came to William's house and shot William in the face from the threshold. During the arrest, Stephen committed suicide. William was 24 years old when he died. His killer was 20 years old. Marshall found William's address on the Maine sex offenders registry. Joe Reisdorf, a friend of Stephen Marshall, said that in their teens they sometimes discussed sex offenders they had heard about in the news. Stephen and Joe agreed then that sex offenders are disgusting and useless people and that they are worse than killers. On the same day, another registered sex offender, 57-year-old Joseph Gray, became a Marshall victim. The Maine Sex Offender Registry is still publicly available.

• Did Sex Offender Listing Lead To Murder? (2009)

  "Convicted rapist Michael Dodele had been free just 35 days when sheriff's deputies found him dead from stab wounds last month in his mobile home. They quickly arrested his neighbor, 29-year-old construction worker Ivan Garcia Oliver, who made "incriminating comments, essentially admitting to his attacking Dodele," police said. Oliver pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, burglary and elder abuse on Nov. 30. A neighbor of Oliver's said that two days before the killing, he "told every house" in the trailer park that he found Dodele's name listed on the Web site of convicted sexual offenders, and was uncomfortable living near him. In a jailhouse interview with the Los Angeles Times, Oliver said he had a son who was molested in the past and he took action to protect the child. "Society may see the action I took as unacceptable in the eyes of 'normal' people," Oliver said. "I felt that by not taking evasive action as a father in the right direction, I might as well have taken my child to some swamp filled with alligators and had them tear him to pieces. It's no different." As it turned out, Dodele was not actually a child molester. His records show he sexually assaulted adult women."

• Man defends attacks on sex offenders (2004)

  "Lawrence Trant sees himself as a righteous crusader who put muscle behind his boiling outrage against pedophiles. The state of New Hampshire sees Trant differently. He is serving a 10- to 30-year sentence in New Hampshire State Prison after pleading guilty to attempting to murder two convicted sex offenders whose names and addresses he found on an Internet registry posted by the state. "I don't want people to steal the souls of little kids," Trant, 57, said in an interview in prison last week. "I'm doing 30 years for something I think is morally justified." But prosecutor John Weld says Trant is one of the most cold-blooded criminals he has encountered. If Trant had not been arrested, Weld said, the native of Cambridge, Mass., probably would have killed someone convicted of a sex crime against children. "He doesn't seem to have any conscience about violence to other people," Weld said. "These people have as much right to justice as anybody else." [...] "I hope I've done a service to the community," Trant said. "These guys are sexual terrorists.""

Vigilante/Hate-motivated Murder

Formerly sectioned pedophobic murderer Levi Axtell (right) received the support of his community

There are numerous examples of murders not resulting directly from registered sex offender status, but instead hearsay in the local community re. a person's status. In one particularly disgusting 2022 example, a teenager who repeatedly stabbed her partner to death (later alleging he was "trafficking" her), escaped prison, later benefitting from a fundraiser to pay her fines. The limits on the fundraiser were raised after it was exceded, and she was praised as "brave" in parts of the mainstream media:

"She said she did not fear the prospect of going to prison, and that she will go on to be a fashion designer and open a business called Pie. She also said she will become a juvenile justice advocate. "My story can change things. My story has changed me," Lewis said. "The events that took place on that horrific day cannot be changed, as much as I wish I could. That day a combination of complicated actions took place resulting in the death of a person, as well as a stolen innocence of a child.""

• Texas vigilante tricked sex offender into meeting him at park – then murdered him: police (2024)

  "James Lewis Spencer III, 24, is charged with murder in connection with the shooting death of Sean Connery Showers, 37, who was found unresponsive, lying in a ditch near a park on Northwood Street, in the early morning hours of May 29, 2023, according to the Houston Police Department. Spencer allegedly told someone "he believed the police were not doing enough to keep pedophiles incarcerated," and he wanted to "rob and harm those types of men [because] they would do bad things to little children and other people," an affidavit filed in Harris County last week states."

• Lynching (German Police Report - Translated) (2023)

  "Yesterday at noon, several men in Bremen-Lesum believed they had to take matters into their own hands. After a television report around noon, they went to a man in his apartment and beat him up so badly that he initially suffered life-threatening injuries. The broadcaster described in a post how reporters sought contact with alleged pedophiles via the Internet. The film then showed a man whose behavior was described by the reporters as suspicious and filmed. After the broadcast, the filmed man was allegedly recognized by people from Bremen-Nord. They said they had identified the address of the man depicted in the post and went there. Unknown perpetrators then broke into an apartment in the multi-party building and beat up a 50-year-old resident so badly that he suffered life-threatening injuries. Fortunately, the victim's life is no longer in danger. An investigation into an attempted homicide has been launched."

• Un-Happy Father’s Day: Pervert Killed In Kellogg, Idaho After Police And School Admins Took NO ACTION — Caught Masturbating While Looking At Neighbor’s Kids And In School (2023)

  "A shooting in Kellogg Idaho has left 4 people dead, after reports of indecent exposure, perversion, and pedophilia were ignored by local law enforcement and Kellogg High School staff. The Idaho Tribune has learned, according to several sources, that the name of one of the victims is 18 year old Devin Smith, a recent graduate of Kellogg High School. Those same sources told the Idaho Tribune that Smith was caught masturbating in class and “was only given one, maybe 2 days of in school suspension” as punishment for his perverted acts. These allegations remain unconfirmed at this time. [...] According to a Facebook post by Sarah Lindsay, it appears as though despite Kaylie’s call to the Police, no action was taken, and that Smith was again seen committing perverted acts while watching the Kaylor children. Based on available information it appears as though Kaylie’s husband, a 31 year old miner named Majorjon Kaylor came home from work, found out about what happened, and in a crime of passion killed Smith, and 3 other individuals in the house."

• Albert Thorn found guilty of executing Bradley Lyons in shallow bush grave after vigilantes tortured him (2023)

  "Leading the charge was eastern Victorian man, self-styled vigilante Albert Thorn, who suspected 30-year-old Mr Lyons was a paedophile. After a three-week trial and five days of deliberations, a Supreme Court jury in Melbourne yesterday found Thorn, 57, guilty of murdering Mr Lyons by shooting him in the back of the head while he lay bound, beaten and burnt in a shallow grave in remote bushland in eastern Victoria. [...] Mr Lyons — a father of three — was ambushed at his home on December 2, 2018, by a posse of four men intent on torturing a confession out of him. [...] The attack on Mr Lyons stemmed from Stefani's belief that his landlord was sexually abusing children. No evidence was ever provided to corroborate his opinion, and prosecutors in court labelled them "flimsy claims"."

• The terrifying inside story of how an innocent dad was tortured and killed by a group of chainsaw-wielding 'paedophile hunters' - after his wife falsely accused him of molesting her daughters (2023)

  "A ruthless gang of drug-fuelled vigilantes menaced an innocent father with a chainsaw while trying to force a confession out of him for crimes he did not commit, in a brutal torture and murder that shocked Australia. Father-of-eight Bradley 'BJ' Lyons was tortured and executed after being betrayed by his meth-addled wife Jana Hooper, who falsely accused him of sexually assaulting her daughters. Video obtained by Daily Mail Australia shows Hooper leading her husband to his death after 'giving the nod' for thugs to enter their house in Lakes Entrance, in Victoria's east, and attack him. [...] Thorn had been the leader of a vigilante gang with a very specific hatred for paedophiles. Such was Thorn's hatred for paedophiles, he tattooed the gang's name, Australian Freedom Fighters, across his entire back and posted photographs to Facebook. [...] Mr Lyons was eventually dragged out of the boot of Thorn's car to an old shed on his property where things went from bad to worse for the terrified dad. The court heard Thorn was giddy with excitement. 'I could see Bert getting really turned on and getting some sort of pleasure from this,' Ms MacFarlane told the jury. [...] The court heard the men had celebrated their crime, holding a party at Thorn's property in which Mr Lyons' own wife and children attended."

• Minnesota dad uses moose antler to slaughter 77-year-old sex offender he claims was stalking daughter - before turning himself in to police station 'covered in blood' (2023)

  "A Minnesota father slaughtered a 77-year-old convicted sex offender using a moose antler and shovel after he accused the victim of stalking his young daughter. Levi Axtell, 27, walked into at the sheriff's office covered in blood and with his head in his hands as he admitted killing Lawrence Scully - who was jailed for molesting a six-year-old girl in 1979. Axtell, from Cook County, Minnesota, had long been suspicious of Scully parking his vehicle at locations where children were present. In 2018 Axtell filed an order of protection against the elderly man which was initially granted but later dropped. Court records also show Scully was committed to a mental institution in 2020 but was later released and prescribed anti-psychotic drugs. [...] On Saturday a woman believed to be Axtell's sister said she had received lots of support from the local community and the family were planning to set up an online fundraiser to help with the case."

Posted by a murderer's wife on Facebook

• Man charged with murder for killing former sex offender with a shovel and an antler

  "Axtell made public posts on social media expressing violent thoughts towards people like Scully starting in 2020. He posted a photo on Facebook featuring someone holding a gun with the caption, “Only cure for pedophiles. A bullet." He added additional thoughts in the comment thread below the photo, saying, "People always ask me why I hate pedophiles. They assume I've been abused. But really I think being protective is just an Axtell trait.""

• Ain: wrongly accused of being a pedophile, a septuagenarian beaten to death (2020)

  "On Sunday, a 74-year-old man was repeatedly beaten by a 25-year-old man who thought he was dealing with a pedophile. He died the next day. [...] The owners of the premises had asked this 74-year-old man, a neighbor and friend, to babysit their 12-year-old son during the weekend, and the latter had spent the night there. [...] [After entering by force, the 25 year old was] convinced he was dealing with a pedophile who attacked his cousin [...] despite the denials of the child himself."

• Basildon man Steven Keeble who beat dad John Masser to death in the street is jailed for life (2018)

  "A man who brutally beat a dad-of-three to death in a residential street shouted and screamed as he was taken away to serve a life sentence in prison. [...] Six weeks prior Mr Masser appeared at Basildon Crown Court for a historic sex offence allegation, in which he denied raping a teenager in 1986. [...] When he saw Mr Masser on the street outside the home of a friend he became very angry by Mr Masser’s presence and his behaviour. “Having left that man bleeding and badly injured on the road, he described him after the attack as a ‘nonce’." [...] The violent attack was witnessed by a number of residents of Moss Drive, including a pregnant woman. [...] "Detective inspector Alan Pitcher, from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate said after the guilty verdict: “On a Sunday, early evening last October, Keeble brutally attacked Mr Masser, subjecting him to a sustained and violent attack. He punched him to the ground and repeatedly kicked and stamped on his head while in a rage. He fled the scene and then denied the assault when he was arrested by the police. By the end of the attack, Mr Masser was lying critically injured. He survived for a few days, but these injuries, viciously inflicted by Keeble, had done too much damage.""

• Suspect accused of murdering gay supermarket worker used 'military strategy to track down uncaught paedophiles' (2013)

  "A man accused of murdering a gay supermarket worker embarked on a campaign against uncaught paedophiles using 'military strategy' to track them down after overhearing convicted prisoners planning new offences while in prison, a court heard. Christopher Hunnisett, who is on trial accused of killing supermarket worker Peter Bick, told the court he used the internet and a network of 'live sources' - some made in prison - to investigate rumours of child abuse. [...] 'There are so many paedophiles in this country, over 600,000 who just offend against children,' he said. 'Even if I stopped more than 100 a day I would take over 20 years to deal with them. It is impossible for one person to stop them all. [...] While in the witness box Hunnisett used military terms like 'in the field' to describe how he investigated claims of sex offending, using call signs like 'Sierra' to describe a 'suspect' and 'Tango' to describe a 'target' against whom he had proof of illegal activities. One they had been 'dealt with' they were reclassified as 'x-ray'. [...] Mr Bick was killed during the early hours of January 11 last year after Hunnisett, whom he had met for sex, inflicted five severe blows to his head with a hammer and strangled him with a shoelace, the court has been told previously. [...] 'It's disgusting and they have no idea how much it destroys a person and damages them, and no one gives a damn about it.' [he said] [...] The trial has already heard there is no evidence that Mr Bick was a paedophile."

• Parents lure alleged pedophile into death trap (Translation) (2016)

  "The public prosecutor's office in Aachen read out the indictment on the first day of the trial, and it became clear to those attending the trial that it was probably deadly vigilante justice due to a misunderstanding. Because daughter Chantal was 22 years old on Facebook. Her parents had made her ten years older when she set up the account, possibly to protect her. One evening Christian L. sent Chantal two short messages via Facebook: first a "How are you" and a little later a "Good evening". When she didn't respond, Christian L. left it at that. He had no idea that he had texted a twelve-year-old. However, Chantal's parents seemed convinced it was a pedophile and they wanted to punish him fatally, according to prosecutors. Mother Nadine contacted Christian L. via Facebook and pretended to be interested in a sexual encounter. When that didn't work, 38-year-old Marlene M. became active as a "decoy" on Facebook and arranged a lonely evening meeting point with Christian L. near the train station in Eschweiler, North Rhine-Westphalia. [...] Mother Nadine hit Christian L. in the face with brass knuckles at the train station and challenged his smartphone to see if he had photos of her daughter on it. Nothing was found, but father Karl-Heinz, who had emerged from the bushes, stabbed Christian L. again and again – “with an absolute will to destroy,” as the public prosecutor says. The couple and work colleague L. left the seriously injured victim. Christian L. bled to death. [...] Very sad lives emerge, characterized by school failure, drugs, unemployment, frustration and being overwhelmed. Nadine's mother is very pale and sits motionless with her carefully combed long hair in the last row of the dock while her lawyer gives biographical information. She left secondary school and worked at the gas station until she couldn't get along with the boss anymore and became unemployed. She had started smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol at an early age."

• Financial aid for Yan Dugas, accused of having killed a pedophile (2016)

  "A crowdfunding campaign has been created on the internet to help Yan Dugas, the 18-year-old young man accused of the murder of pedophile Mathias Breton. A Facebook page “Supports Yan Dugas – Official” was created following his arrest. On this page, loved by more than 100 people, a fundraising campaign on the Go Fund Me site was shared. On a photo of the young man, we can read the following comment: "this boy has rid a useless animal why a trial (sic)"."

• Disabled man burned to death by vigilantes who wrongly suspected him of being a paedophile (2013)

  "Thugs beat up a ­vulnerable disabled man and burned him to death because they mistakenly believed he was a paedophile. Neighbours accused Bijan Ebrahimi, 44, of being a pervert when he was seen taking photos of youths vandalising his hanging baskets. A court heard the rumours led to the keen gardener’s horrific death when Lee James, 24, kicked him­ ­unconscious. With the help of pal Stephen Norley, James then dragged him outside, soaked him in white spirit and set him alight. Police earlier took Mr ­Ebrahami away for questioning as an angry mob chanted “paedo, paedo”, but he was released when officers found he had done nothing wrong. One resident in Brislington, Bristol, said: “When the police took him away everyone was cheering. Then he was released back into that.” Another added: “Whoever started those rumours now has to live with that. "He wasn’t a paedophile and now he’s dead. That’s a hell of a thing to have on your conscience.”"

• Founding member of NAMBLA murdered by man he befriended (1986) (also see our gallery)

  "Robert Burdick, a 78-year-old retired teacher, was brutally murdered in his New York apartment July 24. A drifter named Edward Joseph Patterson, 37, has admitted committing the crime. Burdick's body was found, stabbed at least ten times in the chest, that afternoon following phone calls by Patterson to reporters in Philadelphia and Baltimore, in which he described the crime. He was arrested that evening in Baltimore. [...] Patterson, who has a record of 50 arrests and is listed in police records under some 23 aliases, is apparently a deranged antihomosexual psychopath and has reportedly threatened to kill all American presidents from Richard Nixon on. He told reporters after killing Burdick that he planned to kill eight members of his own family in Camden, New Jersey, "in a more terrible and violent way." He asserted that someone in his family had "molested" him when he was nine years old, and sought to justify his murder of Burdick by alleging that Burdick had had sex with children. What is more likely is that he murdered Burdick because of Burdick's involvement with NAMBLA and his support of man/boy love. Burdick had never been arrested or charged with any crime of any kind. He was a committed fighter for sexual freedom and gay liberation who will be missed not only by his comrades in NAMBLA, but by the entire gay movement."

• Probe into police attack response (2005)

  "Paul Cooper was killed at his flat in Heywood, Greater Manchester, in 2005. [...] The 42-year-old suffered a "brutal and prolonged attack", Minshull Street Crown Court heard. Read attacked and killed Mr Cooper after becoming fixated with the idea he had been indecently assaulted by him when he was a child, the court heard. Police said there was no suggestion that Mr Cooper was ever involved in sexual offences."

• Закон района: товарищ бьет — и ты должен бить». Что говорят в Полоцке о подозреваемых в жестоком убийстве (2019)

  [Editor summary] On April 22, 2019, the 26-year-old resident of Polotsk, Roman Tsyro, was severely beaten and buried alive. The killers were three of his acquaintances - Slava (16 years old), Yuri (17 years old) and Vadim (20 years old). Roman had a relationship with a 16-year-old schoolgirl. He was probably in love with her. The girl herself considered their relationship a friendship. Nevertheless, Slava, Yuri and Vadim considered this unacceptable. On the night of April 21-22, they called Roman, asked to take a taxi and call for them, which he did. They came home to Roman. Young people demanded him leave his girlfriend and confirm in writing the end of the relationship. After Roman refused to do this, they began to beat him. He was beaten with hands, a shovel and other means. Then the killers buried him in the yard. Presumably, Roman was still alive. Further stories.

• Suspected of being a pedophile, he was allegedly killed by his neighbors (2010)

  "On the night of December 8, 2009, firefighters intervened in the apartment of Philippe Pouillé, 69, in flames. The body of this pensioner, slightly handicapped and placed under respiratory assistance, was discovered charred on his bed. The investigators had initially thought of an accident, the oxygen cylinders having been able to catch fire. But the discovery of a box of matches and traces of fuel had quickly oriented the investigation, entrusted to the SRPJ of Montpellier, towards the hypothesis of a murder. A few days later, the autopsy revealed that the man had indeed died of strangulation and not from the consequences of the fire. During their police custody, the three accused neighbors explained that they had gone to the pensioner's house to obtain explanations following questionable behavior. Still according to them, Philippe Pouillet used to receive young children at his home, including the daughters, aged eight and nine, of the two women indicted, who allegedly complained of touching. There, the conversation would have degenerated and two of the three neighbors would then have strangled the old man with their bare hands. They would then have returned a little later to set fire to his apartment. But, according to information from RTL, in the building where the tragedy took place, the theory of a pedophile tendency on the part of the pensioner is puzzling. "This rumor of pedophilia did not hold until this morning, for us, in any case, and it still does not," explains Nordine, who lives on the same floor as the victim. [...] The girls, who should be quickly examined by a doctor, will be seen by a psychiatrist."

• Russian father who forced his ​paedophile ​best friend to dig his own grave and kill himself after ​discovering he had sexually abused​ his daughter, six, is freed from jail a year early after serving just six months (2022)

  "A distraught father who forced his best friend to kill himself when he discovered the man had sexually abused his daughter has been freed from jail after only six months. [...] Prominent TV journalist and former Russian presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak told her followers: "All parents are standing up for the paedophile's killer.""

• Oosterhouter bekent neersteken plaatsgenoot (2000)

  [Editor summary] On September 22, 2000, 37-year-old Lucien met the 22-year-old Dennis Brocken at the supermarket and inflicted 10 stab wounds on him. The motive for the murder was the fact that Dennis had previously committed a sexual “crime”, one of the “victims” of which was Lucien’s son. For this, Dennis was convicted and served his sentence. Dennis’ crime was that he downloaded child pornography and invited a group of youths to his home, played computer games with them and played with them sexually. Brocken was applauded in some quarters as a national hero. Further stories.

• Stab murder man was sex offender and Convicted paedophile 'who struck again' stabbed to death, stripped and mutilated in suspected vigilante attack (2008)

  "A man found stabbed to death in south London was a convicted child sex offender, it has been revealed. Andrew Cunningham, 52, was found dead in his caravan in Riverside Road, in Wandsworth, on Wednesday. A post-mortem examination said the cause of death was multiple wounds including mutilation to the groin." // "A paedophile was hacked to death in a frenzied assault by a suspected mob of vigilantes. Andrew Cunningham, 52, was found naked and soaked in blood at his caravan home after suffering multiple stab wounds to his head, neck and chest [...] Recently, drinkers at a pub claimed he had assaulted another girl. This allegation was never reported to police but mobs reportedly drove past his caravan chanting: 'Die, paedo, die.' Cunningham moved there because vigilantes had set fire to a bag of rubbish outside his former house in Wandsworth in 2003. [...] A police source said detectives were focusing on recent incidents rather than his earlier conviction. He added: 'Damage was caused to his genitals. He was loathed by a large number of people so we have a lot of potential suspects.' Yesterday Wazir Zadran, 23, a worker at a nearby fish factory, said: 'I heard it was a planned attack. Everyone knew he lived there and was a paedophile.' [...] Cunningham's body was found by his employer, known as Rodney, who said: 'There was blood everywhere. The bed was soaked and his head was lying in it.' He added: 'He was a lovely man, he couldn't do enough for me.' But yesterday there was little sympathy from motorists passing the scene, with one van driver shouting: 'He deserved it.' However, a bunch of flowers was laid by a 15-year-old called Lucy. She said: 'I used to go round his caravan instead of going to school. He never laid a finger on me. He told me to go back to school.' The teenager, who was accompanied by her father, later made a statement to police. A tag on her flowers read: 'To Andy, the best man alive no matter what people say. Me and the family will miss you. May you rest in peace.'"

Mitchelle Blair launched into a rage, tortured and murdered her children, she says, when one confessed that the other was "humping" him (described in the story as "rape")

• Slaying provoked by false accusation, police say (2008)

  "VICTORIA -- The sexual touching allegations that provoked the beating death of a Courtenay man this week lacked credibility and may have been fabricated, police said yesterday. Comox RCMP Inspector Tom Gray said a follow-up investigation of the allegations, made by two girls aged 13 and 15 who had been "hanging out" at the victim's house, found no evidence of any wrongdoing. "We're not so sure the people [the teenage girls] making these allegations are credible," said Insp. Gray, noting that RCMP detectives had interviewed the girls at length. "The issue, in my view, was somewhat consensual and in any event it didn't go very far. I just don't want anyone in the public to think the [slaying] victim did anything bad or anything to deserve this.""

• Primal rage: 'pedo' stomped to death (2008)

  "A convicted pedophile represented everyone who had ever abused the young Adelaide man who killed him in a primal rage, a court was told today. Timothy Hemi Schaefer, 19, went to the home of Jeffrey Edwin Payne, 56, in Adelaide in April 2007, called him a "pedo", punched him and stabbed him in the leg. [...] "In fact, during his interview with police he referred to Mr Payne as a sack of shit," Ms Powell said. "He would have had to hear and feel the sounds of the bones fracturing under foot.""

• Killing in jail decried (2006)

  "SANTA ANA – John Derek Chamberlain feared the inmates at Theo Lacy Facility in Orange knew he was in for child pornography charges, his longtime friend Dorothy Schell recalled Friday. "You've got to talk to my attorney to get me out of here," Schell said Chamberlain told her from a jail phone on Tuesday and Wednesday. "I'm afraid. I'm afraid. I'm really afraid. They know. They know. I'm afraid something is going to happen to me." He was right. A group of inmates beat and kicked Chamberlain to death in a shower Thursday night, Orange County Sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said."

Filicide

Parents have for decades been known to beat and abuse their own children because of misguided beliefs about sexuality. But in some cases, this has escalated to murder. A few such examples follow.

• Man Sentenced to 25 Years for Killing 4-Year-Old (2010)

  "A New York City man was sentenced to 25 years behind bars Friday for teaming up with his girlfriend to savagely beat her 4-year-old son to death. Steven Dadaille, 27, and his girlfriend, Myrna Chenphang, 26, both of Brooklyn, had avoided second-degree murder charges by pleading guilty to the lesser charge of first-degree manslaughter in the October 2009 pummeling of young Jayden Lenescar. Dadaille and Chenphang repeatedly battered the boy’s legs, arms and torso with their hands and a belt buckle over a two day period at their home in Crown Heights. Both adults admitted they beat the boy because he was touching his genitals, and they wanted to find out who taught him to do it."'

• The Kids Sexually Abused Each Other, Their Mom Killed Them as Punishment (2021)

  "One day, Blair came home and found her youngest son, Matthew putting his dolls in inappropriate positions. When Blair questioned Matthew, he confided in her that his elder brother, Stephen, had been raping him. Thus, for the next week, Blair severely beat Stephen, choked him, and threw hot water at him whilst he was naked in the bathroom. In the end, Stephen died, and Blair hid his body in the freezer. [...] “I went upstairs and I said, Stephen, Matthew said you were humping on him. He stood up and looked at me like he had lost his mind. He said yes…So I started punching Stephen… I put a bag over his head, he lost consciousness, I did that a couple of times.” [...] After nine months, Blair also discovered that Stoni was abusing Matthew. Stoni’s case was personal to Blair because of what Matthew confessed. She would squeeze blood out of her menstrual pad and drop it in Matthew’s mouth. So, Blair repeated the torture routine. For days, Blair beat Stoni, starved her, threw hot water at her naked body, and finally strangled her until she died. Then, she asked her oldest daughter, Gabrielle, to put Stoni’s body in the freezer."'

• Dad Executed His 15-Year Old Son for Touching Sister (2009)

  "When her 15-year-old son confessed to Lazette Cherry that he’d touched a 3-year-old girl in a sexual way, Cherry called a meeting with family members and friends the next day to discuss what to do next. When Jamar Pinkney Jr. came into the room, Cherry testified Monday that his father asked: “Is there anything you want to tell me?" The family left to allow the parents to talk with the boy. Then they heard screaming as Jamar Pinkney Sr. started kicking, punching and pistol-whipping his son. The witness accounts of the boy’s final minutes came during the father’s preliminary exam Tuesday in 30th District Court, in which he was ordered to stand trial on a charge of first-degree premeditated murder in the slaying of his son Nov. 16. The boy’s aunt, Yolanda Cherry, testified that she heard Jamar pleading: ‘Daddy, don’t!’ Yolanda Cherry said the boy’s father replied: ‘You want to see some counseling?’ in reference to the boy’s earlier requests to get help. [...] After hearing a single gunshot, Yolanda Cherry found her nephew lying mortally wounded. “His heart was still beating. I said, ‘Hold on. He’s choking on his blood'” Yolanda Cherry testified. “All these police cars. Where is the ambulance? When I felt again, I couldn’t feel any heartbeat.” “And he started to pull Jamar’s pants off,” Yolanda Cherry testified. “Jamar Jr. is saying, ‘No, Daddy, no.’”"'

• Mom murdered her autistic son after seeking help from therapist who believes in 'Satanic mind control' (2016)

  "In May, New York millionaire Gigi Jordan was sentenced to 18 years in prison for crushing a lethal dose of Ambien and Xanax into a cocktail of juice and vodka and forcing her 8-year-old autistic son, Jude Mirra, to drink it with a syringe while holed up in a luxury hotel room. [...] News reports and court records about Jordan seem to illustrate a deeply disturbed, delusional mother who believed a complex, winding conspiracy between her two ex-husbands to both defraud her of large sums of money and horrifically, sexually abuse her son. In the end, Jordan maintains she killed Jude because she thought it was the only way to protect him from the ongoing abuse -- abuse she believed caused his autism symptoms. Both men adamantly denied the accusations. Neither has been charged with a crime. "I wanted him to be safe and at peace at any cost," Jordan said in an interview with CBS New York."'

• Michigan dad accused of killing son over sex-abuse claim (2009)

  "A 37-year-old father irate over hearing that his 15-year-old son had sexual contact with a 3-year-old girl made the teen strip at gunpoint, marched him to a vacant lot and shot him to death despite pleas from the boy and his mother, a relative said. Michigan authorities filed a first-degree murder charge Wednesday against Jamar Pinkney Sr. in the shooting death Monday of Jamar Pinkney Jr. in the Detroit enclave of Highland Park. [...] Cherry said the elder Pinkney arrived at the home with a gun, ordered his son to strip and marched him outside despite her protests. “He got on his knees and begged, ‘No, Daddy, no,’ and he pulled the trigger,” Cherry said."

State murder

In some instances, the death penalty has been used against Sex Offenders against minors. In 2023, FL Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill that allows for the execution of some sex offenders. Gay activists even claimed that it could lead to the death penalty for gay and trans people.

Adding lewd conduct with a child as a crime punishable by death could be problematic (2024)

"A proposal to make lewd conduct with a child punishable by death could drastically increase the number of death penalty cases in the state. In 2022 alone, Idaho prosecutors filed 217 cases charging adults with lewd conduct with a child under 16, a crime currently punishable by up to life in prison. [...] The state of Idaho already faces major issues finding the chemicals needed to execute a person by lethal injection, which led to the passage of a bill last year that brought back the potential use of the firing as a means of execution if the state can’t procure the necessary chemicals. The state has not yet constructed a facility to perform the executions by firing squad. IDOC spokesman Jeff Ray said IDOC is working with the Division of Public Works for the engineering, design, and construction phase. “Policy changes will be developed and presented to the board for consideration once we have a better sense of the proposed physical plant design,” Ray said."

Vigilante justice and rage

Sex Offender Research: Vigilantism is far more comprehensive.

Jason Vukovich was praised for a series of crazed hammer attacks on "pedophiles"

The "nonce hunting" situation in the UK (and elsewhere) has often been described as "out of control", with the pursuit of sexual deviants considered an "underground sport" much like cock fighting, dog fighting, bare-knuckle fighting and hare coursing. List of CSA/anti-pedophile proponents covers the British tradition of nonce-hunting and some of the highly localized groups involved. Elsewhere, homophobic groups have even sprung up, using hatred of pedophilia as an excuse for their existence.

• Police: Man used internet registry to track down and beat up pedophiles and sex offenders (2019)

  "Back in the summer of 2016, he carried a notebook with a list of names, including Charles Albee, Andres Barbosa and Wesley Demarest. Over five days, he entered the homes of the three men, uninvited, and hit them, sometimes with his fists and in the case of Demarest, with a hammer, knocking him unconscious. He also stole from them, taking items including a truck and a laptop, according to assistant district attorney Patrick McKay. Vukovich called himself the “avenging angel” for children hurt by abusers. Vukovich told police that he targeted his victims based on their listings on Alaska’s sex offender registry, according to the memorandum. The online registry includes their home addresses, work addresses and convictions. Vukovich carried out his first attack the day after he got out of jail."

• Vigilantes Assault, Rob and Murder Registered Sex Offenders (2017)

  "In July 2015, Nebraska registered sex offender Phillip McDaniel lost his appeal seeking workers compensation for an attack that had occurred two years earlier at the Western Sugar Cooperative, when a co-worker assaulted him with a brass hammer while calling him a “chimo” – slang for “child molester.” The co-worker, Jason Bates, had become enraged after discovering that McDaniel was a registered sex offender. McDaniel suffered injuries to his nose, clavicle and left shoulder. He applied for workers compensation but was denied; after he appealed, the Nebraska Court of Appeals upheld the denial, finding that the attack was due to personal reasons even if the only relationship between the two was as co-workers. See: McDaniel v. Western Sugar Coop., 23 Neb. App. 35, 867 N.W.2d 302 (Neb. Ct. App. 2015)."

• 'My son saved his attacker's life': Father who brutally beat teen he caught raping his son, 11, reveals it was only his boy's pleas that saved the pedophile from death... (2014)

  [Summary] "Jason Browning, 35, shockingly admits he would have killed Raymond Frolander, 18, if not for his son stopping him. Mr Browning beat Frolander unconscious after walking in on the pervert performing a sex act on his son while naked. 'I just snapped,' he admitted after the beating at his Florida home - he will not be charged with any crime for his actions. Frolander admitted to police he has been molesting the boy for three years and was charged with sexual battery on a child under 12. The father created a Gofundme donations page asking for $1million for his son - but later took it down."

• ‘Doing God’s Work’ With a Hammer (2011)

  "A man attacked a 74-year-old registered sex offender with a hammer, claiming he was "doing God's work," police said. John Joseph Huffmaster, 29, of Hazelwood, allegedly crossed the street at about 6 a.m. on June 16 to the home of his 74-year-old neighbor under the guise of asking to borrow some sugar. When the man agreed to give him the sugar, Huffmaster walked inside the house and attacked him with a hammer, police said. Huffmaster then called police and told them that the man was molesting a child and that he had gone there to stop it, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Police arrived, but did not find a child. They found the neighbor semi-conscious and bleeding, with multiple skull and facial fractures."

• Half a million for a paedophile's head (2008)

  A parents' committee in Ekaterinburg, a city of over a million people in the Urals, has decided to tackle the problem of paedophilia using their own methods. They have instigated a "reward for the head of a paedophile". They will award 100,000 rubles (roughly US$ 4,000) to anyone who helps hand a paedophile over to the police and 500,000 rubles (US$ 19,000) to anyone who kills or severely injures one. The first reward has already been given to Evgeny Ivin, a student, who detained a paedophile and thereby saved a nine-year-old girl from rape earlier this year. The aspect of the story which most worried the committee was the fact that, allegedly, three passers-by saw the crime being committed, before the fourth, Ivin, decided to intervene. The new award will, according to them, make ordinary citizens more attentive in such situations. The second, more substantial, award is destined for those who have been jailed for "dealing" with a paedophile. The committee insists that society turns away from such individuals, but their actions can be understood. The money, according to the committee, can be used to pay attorneys and for moral compensation that the government all too often doesn't provide."

Would be pedophobic murderer Jason Browning had his 11-year old son to thank for preventing such an outcome after walking in on a homosexual encounter and brutalizing the older partner. He was still not charged for the attack, despite his cynical attempts to capitalize financially upon the "heroic" act.

• Man walks free after stabbing pedophile (2008)

  "A BLIND man who once acted as a lookout for a robbery yesterday walked from court after pleading guilty to stabbing a confessed pedophile. Raymond Cox - who has a list of criminal convictions 10 pages long - stabbed his neighbour after discovering he was a convicted child sex offender. The pair were drinking together when the neighbour confessed he had served time in prison for having sex with minors."

• Police issue stern warning to vigilante (2008)

  "LEAFLETS naming a convicted sex offender and his victims have been distributed in Booragoon, prompting police to warn people against vigilante action. [...] The pamphlets were designed to look like official documentation with the WA Police and Neighbourhood Watch logos printed on them. [...] "We are concerned about this vigilante type action, said Senior Sergeant Paul van Noort, officer-in-charge of Palmyra police station. ``Quite clearly, it's not an official document but somebody has been distributing information about a potential sex offender and unfortunately it also lists names of innocent parties as well. ``That can be very distressing for the victim and also the families as well"

• Pueblo Chieftain article from October 18 (2008)

  "Reputation is a hard thing to restore. One Puebloan is trying, however, after his neighborhood was plastered with fliers last week falsely stating he was a child sex offender. "I was very fortunate that most of my neighbors that I talked to thought it was a bunch of crap," the 67-year-old man who preferred not to be identified said Friday. "My wife and I went door-to-door to tell people that I am not a sexual offender. I wanted to make sure that people who have children in the neighborhood knew it was a bunch of crap." As many as 25 fliers were distributed in the victim's neighborhood between midnight Oct. 6 and 4:30 a.m. Oct. 7, according to police. The fliers were distributed under the guise of a neighborhood watch group. It stated that the victim was charged with sexual assault on a child and stressed children's safety. "Remember there is no cure for these people," the flier said. "Help each other by watching your neighbor's children . . . Protect the Children!"

• Man stabbed 16 times by son after downloading child porn (2008)

  "Martyn Croft, aged 31, was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years' imprisonment last month for repeatedly stabbing his father Brian during a violent confrontation over child porn. He drove to Kingsthorpe from Birmingham armed with an eight-inch kitchen knife in January, angry after discovering his father's interest in abusive images of children. After a violent confrontation in the early hours of January 24, he attacked his father in his bedroom, stabbing him 16 times in the back and chest, leaving him for dead."'

• Police: Vigilante justice led to unintended death (2007)

  "Everybody in this little mountain community knew that Timothy Chandler had been arrested on child pornography charges. It was in the newspaper and all over the TV news. Two of Chandler’s neighbors decided to do something about it, police say. They were accused of trying to scare him off by setting fire to his tiny house tucked away in a hardscrabble Appalachian hollow. Chandler, 53, escaped from the flames. But his wife was killed in what authorities were calling an example of vigilante justice. [...] “I really wish it wasn’t me who got out,” Chandler told Knoxville television station WBIR. “I wish it was her. She didn’t deserve that.” [...] The fire is one of many examples of suspected vigilantism against sex offenders, ranging from harassment and arson to more violent crimes. A Nova Scotia man used Maine’s sex offender registry last year to find and fatally shoot two registered sex offenders. Two convicted child rapists were killed in Washington state."

Police-supported

See also: To Catch a Predator, Vigilantism and any number of Anti "Paedophile" Organizations listed in our compendium.

• Philly case rekindles debate on vigilante justice (2009)

  "A dozen neighbors were so outraged by the rape of an 11-year-old girl that they chased a suspect and beat him, holding him until police arrived. Two of them were honored with an $11,500 police union reward even before the beaten man was charged in the girl's assault. Hailed by their community as heroes, none of the neighbors is being charged in the beating. "We put out a call to bring this savage beast off the street, and they stepped up," McNesby [LEO] said of the decision to hand out reward money Friday to Fernando Genval and David Vargas. "I think that these two guys did an outstanding job." Police distributed a photo of 27-year-old Jose Carrasquillo, calling him a person of interest in the case [...] They [locals] roughed up the first man they targeted — not Carrasquillo. Later, in an altercation caught by a store surveillance camera, they found and confronted Carrasquillo, beating him with their hands, feet and what appears on the videotape to be a board or a large stick. Carrasquillo was taken to a hospital in serious condition and was released into police custody two days later."

False accusations

A 1994 "expert" in "satanic indicators".

False accusations are a frequent occurrence within this emotive arena, and are thus dotted throughout this article on adverse consequences. As we repeatedly observe, the supposed "magnitude" of this issue makes it incredibly easy for authorities to react in a way that may have life-altering consequences for the falsely accused. With fakes becoming almost impossible to distinguish from the real thing, the financial incentive for accusers has never been greater.

• A Game Of Thrones Actor Was 'Immediately Canceled' Following Pedophilia Charges. Turns Out The Videos Were Fakes (2024)

  "On Game of Thrones, Joseph Gatt was known for playing the chilling role of Thenn Warg who could enter the minds of animals and control their actions. [...] Joseph Gatt was planning on taking part in three upcoming films he was cast in until he was “immediately canceled” after facing criminal charges a couple of years ago “for contact with a minor for a sexual offense.” According to The Daily Beast, it turns out the conversations that were considered evidence for the offense were actually fake the entire time."

• Paediatrician attacks 'ignorant' vandals (2000)

  "A hospital paediatrician has hit out at vandals who forced her to flee her home after apparently taking her job title to mean she was a paedophile. South African-born Yvette Cloete - a 30-year-old trainee consultant at the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, south Wales - said she planned to move home after returning to find the outside of her property daubed with the words "paedo". [...] Marie Thorn, a senior administrator at the Royal Gwent Hospital, said Dr Cloete was dealing "very well with the circumstances". "As a happy coincidence she is moving away from the area - and I don't think this will be anything to make her regret that decision," she said. "It is really quite staggering that this kind of mistake can happen. Some people are incredibly ignorant.""

• Mob mistakes man for sex abuser (2000)

  "A mob has attacked the home of a man after mistaking him for one of the paedophiles "named and shamed" by a Sunday newspaper. Iain Armstrong, 49, of Bradford, Greater Manchester, was confronted by residents who thought he was a child abuser named by The News of the World following of the murder of eight-year-old Sarah Payne. Police said a panic button had been installed in Mr Armstrong's house out of fears for his safety. It was activated at 2100 GMT on Sunday after a brick was thrown through the window of a neighbouring property. The News of the World's decision to publish its list of known child abusers has already been condemned amid fears it will encourage such vigilante attacks on both convicted paedophiles and innocent people."

• Dr. Marty Klein (2016) “Sexually, Are We Becoming Wilder or More Conservative?”, Sexual Intelligence, Issue #199

  "The federal government and various states spend tens of millions of dollars to plant detectives in adult chatrooms. They role-play being teens; when chatroom visitors role-play with them, assuming that the person claiming to be a teen is in fact an adult, the visitor is arrested and accused of thinking he was texting with a real teen, which is a felony."

Leading to massacre of children and others

Accusations (particularly false or speculative ones) are sometimes seen to have tragic secondary consequences for those other than the accused. Such accusations, combined with harassment from the child protection bureaucracy, were the explicit reasons given by the perpetrator of the Dunblane Massacre. "Anti-pedophile" vigilantes have also been targeted in "retribution" attacks, and one famously slayed.

If enough men are unfairly targeted in such a way, it is only a matter of time before the authorities end up picking a fight with someone who is willing to carry out unforgivable acts as revenge.

In late-2022, a crazed gunman shot 5 dead in a Colorado Gay Nightclub. The nightclub had advertised an "all ages drag brunch" on that very day, in a year marred by the emergence of pedophobic attacks on the LGBT community, using the false grooming trope.

In 2024, Nicholas Prosper, of Luton, England shot dead his family members over what appears to be MAP-related grievances. Mu later identified that Prosper was indeed a mentally ill member of MAP communities that were not well-supported enough to offer him protection.

Defamation

Academics in particular are targeted for defamation, due to hysterical attitudes. The "pedophile slur" has been repeatedly hurled at controversial male and trans academics such as Allyn Walker, Stephen Kershnar, Richard Yuill, Jacob Breslow and Thomas Hubbard, as it is widely (and sometimes wrongly) assumed to be a "zero risk strategy", i.e. "if you throw enough mud at the wall, some of it will stick". See our gallery at the top of the page, for some examples.

Worship of Satan, blood libel, "Recovered Memory"

This is a particularly insidious form of moral panic, whose repercussions are still felt. See for example, Wikipedia. Fortunately, this specific form of moral panic is less active right now, but lives on in alternative-right conspiratorialism, QAnon, etc, slowing political progress and providing a distraction handle to divert attention away from the wrongdoings of public officials. Police agencies in the UK have also claimed that SRA is still a problem, while American academics have penned volumes on subjects such as "soul murder" and "demonic possession as a consequence of childhood trauma".

Botched child pornography investigations

In the late 90s and early 00s, Portsmouth was known for its "thriving grassroots anti-pedophile movement", following a series of scare campaigns in British tabloid newspapers

In the late 00s, Operation Ore was uncovered as a large scale injustice. Similarly, many questions remain unanswered concerning Ore's American counterpart, Avalanche (see gallery at head of page). If you are so inclined, find a decent mirror of Inquisition 21 from back in the day, and please contact us if you have more information as we would like to publish more thorough accounts of these investigations.

As an easy handle for state intervention

In March, 2009, NAMBLA were accused by the New York Post and MSNBC of putting a $10,000 bounty on the head of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo following a completely anonymous posting on usenet, made by someone claiming to represent them. MSNBC claimed that the bounty was "sponsored by the monsters at NAMBLA, the nation's largest pro-pedophilia group". Apparently unaware or ignorant of the fact that such claims were made frequently, and in similar mocking-tones on newsgroups, where NAMBLA is the butt of numerous jokes, American authorities used this threat as the launchpad for a criminal investigation, again, gleefully reported upon by the Post. Thus, gutter press journalists were effectively allowed to defame a virtually defunct and cash-strapped organization that would have been able to sue against such claims if it had $10,000 at its disposal.

NAMBLA had previously foiled an FBI attempt to smear them for unrelated crimes.

Unconstitutionality

• "Protecting our kids – or jeopardizing everyone's freedom?" (2008)

  "Residency restrictions, unconstitutional laws that bar sex offenders from living in a specified area, are on the rise [...] Twenty-two states have prohibited sex offenders from living within a minimum distance of family facilities, such as schools and day-care centers. The distance ranges from 500 feet to five times that. And further restrictions are on the way. [...] The more crucial problem, though, is that residency restrictions clearly violate the constitutional limits on statutory law. Article I, Section 9 of the United States Constitution reads in part: "No bill, or attainder, or ex post facto law shall be passed." The Latin phrase "ex post facto" literally translates as "from after the fact." The Founding Fathers wisely realized that law must not be retroactive. [...] Most state laws require their state to build schools and family facilities according to the population of a constituency. Therefore, inevitably a case arises when changes in demographics require construction of a school within the restricted range of a convicted child sex offender. We may feel no sympathy when an ex-convict is forced to sell his home because of it, but this practice is retroactive punishment."

• Court strikes down life sentence for sex offender (2008)

  "In a 6-1 decision, written by Justice Robert Benham, the court said the life sentence imposed upon 26-year-old Cedric Bradshaw of Statesboro violates the Eighth Amendment’s guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment. “We conclude the imposition of a sentence of life imprisonment is so harsh in comparison to the crime for which it was imposed that it is unconstitutional,” Benham wrote."

• CFC America on "Oakland youth in sex diary case found dead" (2009)

  "Pleading to seduction as Fawcett did in 2002 meant his name would not appear on the sex-offender list. But changes last year require those who pleaded guilty to seduction to appear on the list, said the county's Chief Deputy Prosecutor Deborah Carley. [...] His parents called it a devastating blow to their son. The state enacted New Laws and applied them Retroactively, which is against the United States Constitution. His parents said it was wrong to for the state to break an agreement, their plea agreement, and do this to their son. They said they believe the plea agreement he made two years ago should stand."

• Supreme Court refuses Internet age restrictions case (2009)

  "For over a decade the government has been trying to thwart freedom of speech on the Internet, and for years the courts have been finding the attempts unconstitutional," Chris Hansen, senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said in a statement. "It is not the role of the government to decide what people can see and do on the Internet. Those are personal decisions that should be made by individuals and their families."

• Dr. Marty Klein (2016) “Sexually, Are We Becoming Wilder or More Conservative?”, Sexual Intelligence, Issue #199

  The federal government now insists that if two college students get drunk and agree to have sex, one can call it rape and try to have the other expelled from school. At the ensuing hearing, the accused student will not be allowed a lawyer, nor will he be allowed to cross-examine his accuser. This destruction of due process is supposed to be "progress."

Broad sweep registries

See our research article.

When the same overbearing restrictions are applied to minor offenses (public urination, "statutory rape", etc), we simultaneously undermine the magnitude of serious crimes and impose cruel and unusual punishments on less serious offenders. See SOR problems.

Homelessness

A Floridian sex-offender "tent city" in 2008

Homelessness is a widely acknowledged result of Jessica's Law and almost certainly increases the rate of offending. Ghettos such as Miracle Village have sprung up in response. Homelessness is an ongoing problem that does not receive as much attention as it did in the 00s.

• Panel: Calif. Seeks Solutions to Homeless Sex Offender Rate (2017)

  "California has as many homeless sex offenders now as it did 2½ years ago, when a state Supreme Court ruling that overturned restrictions on where they could live was seen as a way to increase housing options and allow law enforcement to better track them. Sex offenders must register with the state and provide new addresses when they move. Those who are homeless are less apt to keep their locations updated and more likely to commit new crimes. The number of homeless offenders more than tripled after voters banned sex offenders from living near schools and parks a decade ago, and it was thought the number would fall with the Supreme Court's March 2015 decision. But as of early July, there were 6,329 homeless sex offenders on the California Justice Department's sex offender registry — down only a hair from the 6,422 in January 2015."

• Homeless sex offenders living in tents in busy section of Fayetteville (2022)

  "There are 843 registered sex offenders living in Cumberland County. For dozens in Fayetteville, their home is a tent alongside the road. Deputies in the Sheriff's Office Sex Offender Registration Enforcement Unit (SOREU) learned the group of offenders are homeless and stay in a tent community along where the busy Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway (Highway 87) goes over Gillespie Street. Some live under the overpass while others live in a nearby field beside Gillespie Street. A man who didn't want be identified told WRAL News he is a registered sex offender who lives in a tent. He has a job and was living with his sister, but the law requires sex offenders to live at least 1,000 feet from a school, which she didn't, he explained. "It's also hard to find houses and hard to find rent," he said."

• Inside Miami’s Hidden Tent City For ‘Sex Offenders’ (2014)

  "In 2009, Miami-Dade County drew national criticism when reports emerged that more than 100 individuals on the sex offender registry were camping under the Julia Tuttle Causeway in the middle of the Biscayne Bay with the blessing of the corrections department, because a patchwork of restrictive laws made it so they had nowhere else to go. In response, officials cleared out the camp and changed the law, in a shift that was supposed to give these offenders a habitable place to live. But four years after that new law was passed, those on the sex offender registry who consider Miami-Dade County home are just camping somewhere else — in makeshift encampments on the outskirts of the county near a railroad track. There is no sanitary water source, no bathrooms, and no shelter from the elements. Many of them used to sleep in an empty warehouse. But after the owners complained, they moved north to a small strip of land, where the only shelter they can find is from their own tents or cars, and sometimes another abandoned warehouse. [...] How does this happen? Like many places, Miami-Dade County has restrictions on where those on the sex offender registry can live, often known as “child safety zones.” In their case, they cannot live within 2,500 feet of a school. Miami-Dade’s law was passed two years ago after several even stricter laws that created buffer zones around a range of facilities were deemed too restrictive. But since the law was passed, more and more places have been classified as “schools.” And the significant radius — much greater than the 1,000-foot requirement in the state law — has left those on the sex offender registry with few options for affordable, habitable living space. For a time, these individuals were living at River Park mobile home. But residents lobbied to have a youth emergency homeless shelter defined as a “school” under the law, and dozens of those on the offender registry were ejected."

• Panel: Take another look at sex offender restrictions (2009)

  "Reporting from Sacramento -- A state panel is urging the governor and legislators to change "Jessica's Law," saying its restrictions on where sex offenders can live are counterproductive and calling the nearly $25 million a year spent to house them a poor use of taxpayers' money. The residency restrictions, passed by voters more than two years ago in Proposition 83, have never been shown to prevent new crimes and may reduce public safety, the panel says. Since 70% of voters approved the initiative, "the availability of suitable housing has plummeted," the state's Sex Offender Management Board said in a report sent to lawmakers this week. The state previously had more modest residency limits that applied only to certain sex offenders. Jessica's Law expanded the restrictions to all sex offenders and greatly reduced the locations where they could reside. Barring sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools, parks and other areas where children gather has driven many into homelessness, an unstable situation that can propel them back to crime, according to the board. State corrections officials say they find housing and pay rent for about 800 who are on parole, but they cannot house them all; the number of homeless sex offenders on parole is 12 times as large as it was when the law was passed."

• Perverted Justice. Sex offender laws represent the triumph of outrage over reason. (2011) copy

  "In 2005 Iowa banned people convicted of sex offenses involving minors from living within 2,000 feet of a school or day care center. Almost immediately, the ban prompted complaints from police and prosecutors, who worried that the residence restrictions were so burdensome that they discouraged sex offenders from pleading guilty and from registering after conviction, making them impossible to track. In a 2006 statement, the Iowa County Attorneys Association said the law "does not provide the protection that was originally intended" and called for its repeal, citing "the cost of enforcing the requirement and the unintended effects on families of offenders." After the law took effect, the number of sex offenders whose whereabouts were unknown more than doubled. The prosecutors reported that "the residency restriction is causing offenders to become homeless, to change residences without notifying authorities of their new locations, to register false addresses or to simply disappear.""

Unenforceable and expensive laws

For more SOL Reform arguments and links, see Research: Recidivism and other offending figures.

• Jessica's Law is an expensive failure (2008)

  "By now, it should be apparent that California voters made a serious mistake when they passed Proposition 83, the 2006 ballot initiative popularly known as Jessica's law. The law requires lifetime monitoring of sex offenders -- not only those charged with child sexual abuse and rapists whose victims were adults, but also those convicted of consensual sex with a teenager and even misdemeanor indecent exposure. It bars offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park. By the end of 2007, it was obvious that the law was a failure. Almost no local police agencies in California were enforcing it, partly because it was unenforceable and partly because even trying to enforce it proved prohibitively expensive. [...] In practice, as the Times reported, it has led to the state contracting with 79 psychologists and psychiatrists to do the evaluations. Last year, 14 of them billed the state more than a half-million dollars apiece for those services. One billed the state for more than $1.5 million in 2007. Such payments to contractors might be worthwhile if the evaluations were producing clear benefits. But it isn't. The evaluations were supposed to be used to determine if sex offenders should be committed to a mental hospital after serving their sentences. But the Times found that the number of commitments was essentially the same for the 18-month periods before and after voters approved the law."

• Perverted Justice. Sex offender laws represent the triumph of outrage over reason. (2011) copy

  "Predictably, offenders confined under sexually violent predator laws after completing their prison sentences are almost never declared well enough to release. In 2007 the Washington State Institute for Public Policy counted discharges by the 20 states that had implemented such laws at the time. Of the 4,534 offenders who had been committed since the first such law was passed in 1990, 188 (about 4 percent) had been released based on a "program staff recommendation." According to 2011 legislative testimony by Rob Siedlecki, acting secretary of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, only two out of 247 prisoner/patients (less than 1 percent) have successfully completed that state's Sexual Offender Treatment Program since it was created in 1994. Taxpayers are paying a pretty penny for these dismal results. The Washington state study found that committing a sex offender cost an average of $97,000 annually, compared to $26,000 for a year of prison, a gap that a 2007 investigation by The New York Times attributed to "higher costs for programs, treatment and supervised freedoms.""

Psychic interventions and inferences

Most people know that superstition, fabrication and mass psychosis have marked some of the past "unearthly" CSA panics such as the Satanic Panic. But while coercive "recovery" of traumatic memories, grifting therapists and their corrupt relationships with lawyers are some of the better-known aspects of the CSA Industry, even psychic mediums have been allowed to gain ground.

• CityNews Exclusive: The Mother, The Child, The School Board And The Psychic (2008)

  "Leduc's weird tale began on May 30, when she dropped young Victoria off for class at Terry Fox Elementary and headed in to work, only to receive a frantic phone call from the school telling her it was urgent she come back right away. The frightened mother rushed back to the campus and was stunned by what she heard - the principal, vice-principal and her daughter's teacher were all waiting for her in the office, telling her they'd received allegations that Victoria had been the victim of sexual abuse - and that the CAS had been notified. [...] "The teacher looked and me and said: 'We have to tell you something. The educational assistant who works with Victoria went to see a psychic last night, and the psychic asked the educational assistant at that particular time if she works with a little girl by the name of "V." And she said 'yes, I do.' And she said, 'well, you need to know that that child is being sexually abused by a man between the ages of 23 and 26.'" [...] But things got worse when school officials used the "evidence" and accepted the completely unsubstantiated word of the seer by reporting the case to Children's Aid, which promptly opened a file on the family. "They reported me to Children's Aid," Leduc declares, still disbelieving. "Based on a psychic!" [...] As a result, she's refused to send Victoria back to class - or to the educational assistant who allegedly started the entire chain of events in the first place. As a result of her stress and the need to stay home with her daughter, Leduc is now unable to work, has no place to send her child for the rest of the year, isn't sure where she'll go when school begins in September and is seeking legal advice."

• Leeds paedophile guilty thanks to man who 'talks to dead' (2008)

  "A psychic who called upon the dead to expose a paedophile who preyed on girls as young as nine today said: "Justice has been done." Using his mystic powers Patrick Hutchinson sensed a 20-year-old woman's demons from her childhood and helped her confront her abuser for the first time. After a five-and-a-half-day trial a Leeds Crown Court jury yesterday convicted her tormentor Terrance Dunstan, 61, of five charges of indecently assaulting three girls aged from nine to 11 between 1997 and 2001. [...] Mr Hutchinson repeatedly asked if she had been abused as a child until she burst into tears and told the friend she was out with the terrible secret she had kept hidden for around ten years. [...] Dunstan escaped prison in March 2005 and was handed a community order after admitting four charges of indecently assaulting three different girls all aged under 16 between 1989 and 2004. Father-of-eight Dunstan claimed he was the victim of a plot to get him jailed during his trial which started last Monday. He said the three girls who made complaints against him had conspired with previous victims. He said they were angry he escaped jail after being convicted of abusing them."

• Paedophile denies carrying out exorcisms (2010)

  "Convicted paedophile Mohammed Anjum, 53, of Egmont Road, spoke out to deny the claims from the mother of one his alleged victims as he gave evidence during his trial at Teesside Crown Court. She accused him of being a black magician and exorcist who tried to kill his own father and thought she was possessed by demons. During an extraordinary testimony the mother, who cannot be identified, shouted at the defendant from the witness box: "Sexually abuse my child now, I dare you, in front of Judge Fox. I dare you. You coward. Gary Glitter. Disgusting. Dirty pervert. I'm enjoying this. I'm enjoying speaking the truth." Giving evidence on Wednesday, the mother said she once saw Anjum "glaring at my son like a savage beast". [...] She told the court: "What he had done in my religion was write something which makes you a disbeliever. He'd written magic, black magic, a spell." The mother told officers Anjum and his wife, who are now estranged, were black magicians. She talked of "magic love spells" and likened the couple to Fred and Rose West. Responding to the allegations, defence barrister Tony Hawks said to Anjum: "I never thought I would have to ask this during my career at the bar, are you a black magician?" "No," the bearded defendant replied."

Banning of children & child photography

With widespread uneasiness surrounding the imputed motives of people - especially men who volunteer to work with children or photograph children at events, completely cancelling clubs and events or banning photography is often the easier option.

• A Dad Took Pictures of His Son at a Doctor’s Request, then Google Labeled Him a Sex Offender (2022)

  "In a recent article, the New York Times tells the story of a father who attempted to seek telemedicine treatment for his son amidst the coronavirus pandemic, sending photos of his son to the doctor for inspection at the request of the medical office. Google tagged the images as child abuse material, disabled his account, and reported him to the police. [...] in February 2021 noticed that his son appeared to be suffering from a medical issue affecting his genitals which were swollen and painful. Mark’s wife called an advice nurse at their health care provider and scheduled an emergency consultation by video. The nurse instructed Mark and his wife to send photos of the medical issue to the doctor ahead of time so that he could review them before the consultation. Mark and his wife did so, using their iPhone to take photos of their child’s genitals. The doctor quickly diagnosed the issue and prescribed antibiotics which treated the problem. But just two days after taking the photos of his son, Mark received a notification on his phone informing him that his account had been disabled because of “harmful content” that was “a severe violation of Google’s policies and might be illegal.” A link titled “learn more” directed him to a list of possible reasons, including “child sexual abuse & exploitation.” Mark immediately filled out a form requesting a review of Google’s decision and explaining his son’s medical issue. But quickly Mark found that not only had he lost access to his emails, contact information for friends and former colleagues, and documentation of his son’s first years of life, but also his Google Fi account shut down which meant that he had to get a new phone number with another carrier. A few days later, Google responded that it would not be reinstating his account. Later, Mark learned that Google had also flagged a video he made and the San Francisco Police Department had begun to investigate him."

[Editor: This was not an isolated incident]

• How an Arizona couple’s innocent bath time photos of their kids set off a 10-year legal saga (2018)

  "A Walmart employee had flagged the bath time photos as pornographic, the detective told the parents. One showed the girls wrapped in towels with their arms around each other; another showed their exposed bottoms. The Demarees said they were harmless shots of the children goofing around, no different than what you’d expect to find in any family scrapbook. But police and social workers launched a full-blown sex abuse investigation, raiding the couple’s home and putting the girls in protective custody for a month while they interviewed dozens of family members and friends about whether the Demarees were child sex offenders. [...] On Tuesday, after a series of defeats in the case, a federal appeals court affirmed what the Demarees have argued all along: that their children were taken from them for no good reason. [...] The decision, which came nearly 10 years after the parents’ initial encounter with police, revived the case against the two social workers after a lower court dismissed it in 2014. That court ruled that the social workers, as employees of the Arizona government, were entitled to “qualified immunity,” meaning they were protected from liability in lawsuits arising from their professional duties. [...] After questioning the parents, police took the children in for interviews and medical exams to look for signs of sexual abuse. While the exams were being conducted, they got a search warrant and raided the couple’s home, seizing computers, cellphones, undeveloped film and other materials relevant to a child pornography probe, the court wrote. [...] Police interviewed about three dozen friends, family members and co-workers of the Demarees in the course of their sex-abuse investigation, according to the lawsuit. The Demarees also underwent psychological evaluation, according to ABC News."

• Child protection rules could see youngsters banned from sport and hobby clubs (2008)

  "Children could be barred from joining sports and hobby clubs because of the increasing burden of red tape, campaigners fear. Organisations which run activities for youngsters are already struggling to recruit volunteers because they must undergo criminal records checks. But when a new child protection database is introduced next year - which one in four adults will have to sign at a cost of £64 each - it is feared that many groups which admit members of all ages will decide it is cheaper and simpler to exclude children. Campaigners say this will leave teenagers unable to take part in activities which are good for their development, and makes a mockery of Government attempts to crack down on youth obesity and anti-social behaviour [...] "Some clubs have closed their doors to children, and that's a real shame."

• Parents warned on gymnastic photos (2008)

  "FEAR of paedophiles on the internet has prompted Scots sports chiefs to warn parents and coaches not to photograph young athletes in their gym gear. Controversial new advice from governing body Scottish Gymnastics says photographs of youngsters should only be taken if they are wearing tracksuits."

• Archived article from the Herald Sun (2008)

  "Netball, basketball, rugby league, AFL, cricket, soccer and baseball clubs have imposed rules to prevent photos of young players being taken without the consent of all parents and coaches. NSW's Macarthur junior baseball league president Maud Goldfinch said parents had to sign a form confirming they would not take photographs without permission. Ms Goldfinch said that as a parent, she did not agree with the policy, which deprived children of happy sporting memories. "

• Story from ThisIsLincolnshire (2008)

  "Parents are now banned from taking photographs of their own children at most family venues across Lincolnshire, new research has revealed. There are picture bans in places ranging from North Kesteven Sports Centre in North Hykeham to Crazee Bongos indoor play area in Sleaford. An Echo survey shows that even Superbowl bowling alley in Lincoln stops parents from capturing magical childhood moments."

• Father-of-three branded a 'pervert' - for photographing his own children in public park (2008)

  "When Gary Crutchley started taking pictures of his children playing on an inflatable slide he thought they would be happy reminders of a family day out. But the innocent snaps of seven-year-old Cory, and Miles, five, led to him being called a ‘pervert’. The woman running the slide at Wolverhampton Show asked him what he was doing and other families waiting in the queue demanded that he stop. One even accused him of photographing youngsters to put the pictures on the internet."

Attacks on heritage

• Man with hammer seen attacking statue outside BBC HQ (2022)

"A controversial statue over the entrance to the BBC’s Broadcasting House in London has been damaged by a man with a hammer. The individual used a ladder to reach the statue by Eric Gill while another man on the ground shouted about the sculptor’s history of paedophilia. The BBC has previously faced calls to remove Prospero and Ariel, which was installed in 1933. Gill’s diaries, published decades after his death in 1940, revealed he sexually abused his daughters and family dog. Shards of stone have been falling from the BBC building and the man has written the words “noose all paedos” on the statue. Images from the scene appear to show the penis of the child in the piece has been removed. Police, who were called to the scene at around 4.15pm, said they were trying to “engage” with the man wielding the hammer, and have arrested another man on suspicion of conspiracy to commit criminal damage."

• Florida Principal Out After Viewing Of Michelangelo's 'David' Upsets Parents (2023)

"The principal of Florida’s Tallahassee Classical School is out of a job after parents complained that their sixth-grade children were shown Michelangelo’s 16th century “David” sculpture, with one parent calling it “pornographic,” the Tallahassee Democrat first reported. The now-former principal, Hope Carrasquilla, told HuffPost the situation was also “a little more complicated than that,” noting that the usual protocol is to send parents a letter before students are shown such classical artwork. [...] One parent was “point-blank upset,” Carrasquilla continued, and “felt her child should not be viewing those pieces.” The board of the charter school decided Monday to give the principal the choice to resign or be fired after less than a year in the job. She was the school’s third principal since it opened in the fall of 2020, per the Tallahassee Democrat. [...] Carrasquilla said she had taught in classical education for a decade and knew that “once in a while you get a parent who gets upset about Renaissance art” — hence the letter. [...] “Parental rights trump everything else,” [School Board Chair] Bishop said. [...] “They didn’t like the woke indoctrination that was going on,” [he added] [...] “We don’t use pronouns,” Bishop said. “We don’t teach CRT and we don’t ever mention 1619 — those are not appropriate subjects for our kids.”"

• Teacher reprimanded after student sees nude art on museum trip (2006)

"School board members have voted to not renew the contract of a veteran art teacher who was reprimanded after one of her fifth-grade students saw a nude sculpture during a school trip to a museum. Sydney McGee has been on paid administrative leave from Fisher Elementary School since Friday, said her attorney Rogge Dunn. [...] "If they had good reason to fire her, they would have, but they don't," Dunn said. "It's mind-boggling.""

[See also]

• Vickers' Scandalous Caption and the Library of Congress - Percy Foundation Wiki (2012)

"Of all the many scholars who try to impose contemporary "morals" onto depictions of ancient lives, Michael Vickers is one of the most egregious offenders. Recent discourse about his labeling of a painted vase with pederastic art at the Ashmolean, where he is Curator of Greek and Roman Antiquities, demonstrates his prejudices and disregard for historical reality. With his defense of that outrageous caption of his, he has outdone even his fellow British academician James Davidson in The Greeks and Greek Love: A Bold New Exploration of the Ancient World, Orion, 2006. The vase in question, depicting a pederastic scene at a palestra where a man and a youth are clearly in the midst of sexual foreplay, was labeled some time ago by Vickers to read, simply, "Paedophile and victim.""

• Paul Reubens pleads guilty to obscenity charge (2004)

"“Pee-wee Herman” actor Paul Reubens was sentenced to three years probation Friday after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor obscenity charge involving photographs seized from his erotica collection. The former star of the “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” children’s TV show and two “Pee-wee” movies won’t be allowed unsupervised contact with minors during the probation period. Under terms of a plea agreement that Superior Court Judge Carol H. Rehm approved, Reubens also agreed to pay a $100 fine and enter a counseling program for one year. [...] Evidence seized included images of minors with their genitals exposed, Moses contended. “That mischaracterizes the art collection seized,” Reubens’ lawyer, Blair Berk said Friday. “If that means a black-and-white tintype from 1901 with a young man of indeterminate, 17- to 19-year-old age, laying on the beach after having gone skinny-dipping ... then they got it.” “It was clear from the start that we, along with the many distinguished art experts supporting Paul’s art photography collection, vehemently disagreed with the city prosecutor’s view of what constitutes art,” Berk said. In a statement, Reubens said he was glad that the child pornography charge had been dismissed without “a costly circus-like trial.”"

Banning of contact

In the 90s and 00s, an increasing number of public facilities started introducing regulations to "safeguard" children, or otherwise reduce the risk of even fleeting contact with adult strangers. One now deleted story informed us that:

Library staff have been warned not to put children on their knees during story times for fear they will be branded paedophiles. Staff have also been told not to "lead a child by the hand" out of the library to look for a missing parent under a new policy introduced by education chiefs. As well as protecting employees from "vulnerable situations", the policy also warns librarians to keep an eye out for potential paedophiles and to ask adults acting suspiciously near a children's area or activity to move on or leave. Library staff will be told to refrain from physical contact where possible, even when they are trying to comfort a distressed or injured child.

This scheme of "protections", we now take for granted.

"No unaccompanied adults" rules

Park/pool sign advertised online in 2024 alongside inaccurate claims about children.

Such rules are now commonplace throughout America's parks and playgrounds, meaning that an unsuspecting adult entering or traversing one of these areas without an alibi might face fines or worse.

• Case against New York City chess players dismissed (2011)

  "Two men facing a trial for playing chess in a public park had their case dismissed on Tuesday but police said the players risk getting in trouble again if they return to the tables for another game. Police stopped Yacahudah Harrison, Christopher Peralta, and four other men who were playing at built-in stone chess tables in a Manhattan playground on October 20 and ordered them to appear in court for violating a park rule that prohibits adults from the playground "except in the company of children". "I've been playing there for the last two years," Harrison said in court on Monday. "We were welcomed there. Parents thought we were a positive influence. I think all around the world chess is considered good culture." [...] New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said in a telephone interview that nothing was changed by the dismissal, and that adults hoping to use the chess tables without children in tow would still run the risk of being summoned to court. [...] Siegel noted the case could have been avoided if park designers had thought about who would use the chess tables. "Four-year-olds don't play chess," he said."

Sexism

• 'Parents don’t believe men should be working in childcare' (2017)

"A pair of parents walked past and clocked me, just sitting there. The next thing I knew, they’d reported me to the police for touching their child inappropriately. It hit me like a bus. They started an active campaign against me, even though I’d done nothing wrong. They put posters of my face with my name and where I worked, saying I was a child molester. It was plastered everywhere around traffic lights and in the streets. They spread lies about me throughout the community. I had to go for an interview with child protection services. I was terrified. I knew I’d done absolutely nothing wrong, but if I were found guilty of something it would affect my entire life. I was really freaking out, it was horrendous. I had to answer a load of questions but I gave straight, honest answers because I knew that the whole childcare centre worked with careful guidelines; I’d never been alone with children and never acted inappropriately in any way whatsoever."

• Widower staying with his own daughter, 13, is accused of being a PAEDOPHILE by Travelodge staff and interviewed by police all because he booked a double room (2017)

"A widower who lost his wife to cancer was accused of being a paedophile by Travelodge staff because he booked a double room for him and his daughter. Craig Darwell, 46, was taking Millie, 13, to visit Thorpe Park and was forced to book the double room in Chertsey, Surrey, because there were no others available. But when he checked in, suspicious staff demanded that he show them his daughter's ID. Mr Darwell, who lost his wife to leukaemia when Millie was just four, explained that he did not have ID for his daughter and instead showed staff pictures of them together when she was a baby. But even after seeing them, staff called the police and he and his daughter were forced into separate rooms and interviewed by a police officer."

• BlogFathers - "Dealing With (Irrational?) Fear Of Pedophiles" (2008)

"My friend, a Latin woman, has such fear of pedophiles that she will not let any teacher help out in the bathroom at day care with her toddler girls. No change of diapers, no change of clothing, and no help with toilet visits. It must be a woman, otherwise inappropriate things could happen. Apparently, any male might be a pedophile. Every other parent is fine with the male employees helping out but she refuses to change her mind."

General hysteria

• Man seen speaking to children outside school in St. Catharines won't be charged (2017)

  "Police were called by members of the public who reported seeing an older man standing near a fence talking to kids on the other side. [...] The citizens took photos of the man, described as 60 to 70 years of age. Police say he had given the children gum and had left the scene by the time officers arrived. A photo of the man was distributed and police say information called in by citizens led to his identification. Detectives went to his residence and "spoke to him at length" before deciding criminal charges were "not appropriate.""

• Archdiocese Enacts New "Touching" Guidelines (2008)

  "Tough new guidelines on "good" touching and "bad" touching are now in place for anyone who has contact with children within the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. For example, "side hugs" are allowed but "bear hugs" are considered prohibited physical contact." [...] "It is really sad, but it's necessary in the culture in which we're living," said Andriacco. [...] "The decree prohibits physical contact that is considered "inappropriate." Any form of unwanted affection [...] Inappropriate, forceful or lengthy embraces and/or "bear hugs" [...] Kisses [...] Lap-sitting [...] Touching buttocks, chest, knees, thighs or genital areas [...] Placing hands in the pockets of al child [...] Showing affection in isolated areas such as bedrooms, closets, adult-only or staff-only areas [...] Laying down, cuddling or sleeping near a child [...] Being in bed with a child [...] Wrestling [...] Tickling [...] Piggyback rides [...] Massage given by an adult to a child [...] Massage given by a child to an adult"

• Losing touch (2005)

  "It's an everyday drama at primary schools up and down the country - but according to London teacher Kate Abley, a child wetting himself in the classroom is no longer a molehill, it's a mountain. "One male teacher refused to change children - he'd get other teachers to do it," says Abley. "Another teacher would call the child's mother to come in and deal with it." Those teachers who were prepared to change a child's wet pants were supposed to take another adult into the changing rooms, to keep an eye on them. "The whole thing was completely impractical." There's a growing panic among childcare professionals about touching young children in their care which, says a group of academics at Manchester Metropolitan University's Institute of Education, is causing concern and uncertainty about what's OK and what's not when it comes to innocent physical contact with youngsters. In research they are planning to publish later this year, academics Heather Piper, John Powell and Hannah Smith describe how some child carers are reluctant even to put a plaster on a child's scraped knee. Very young children have to treat their injuries themselves - with the nursery worker or teacher giving instructions on how to open the box, take out a plaster and stick it on. If a child's parent is nearby, he or she is summoned to deal with the injury. Piper describes it as a crazy situation. "Many people are behaving in completely ludicrous ways. What is cast into doubt is the process of normal nurturing - the way adults are with children." Comforting a child when they're upset, putting a plaster on them, changing their wet pants - all these everyday ways in which adults care for young children are now seen as suspect. "Children are used to being cared for by adults, being picked up and having somebody put their plasters on. If they go to places where adults don't touch them, this must be quite horrifying," says Piper - she cited the example from one playgroup in her research where there was "no touch that was caring at all"."

• Adults 'scared to go near kids' (2008)

  "Many adults are afraid to interact with children for fear of being labelled as paedophiles, a report has claimed. Think-tank Civitas said the "escalation of child protection measures" had made everyone from sports coaches to Santas seem like "potential child abusers". The Home Office said there was no evidence that vetting had deterred volunteers or eroded trust. It plans to tighten the rules further, so all parents hosting foreign exchange students will face background checks. In its report, Licensed to Hug, Civitas said that child protection regulations had "succeeded in poisoning the relationship between the generations". While in the past, adults would have helped children in distress or rebuked those misbehaving, there was now "a feeling that it is best not to become involved", it said. Report author Prof Frank Furedi, of Kent University, said: "From Girl Guiders to football coaches, from Christmas-time Santas to parents helping out in schools, volunteers - once regarded as pillars of the community - have been transformed in the regulatory and public imagination into potential child abusers, barred from any contact with children until the database gives them the green light."

• Don't 'Be Alone with Other People's Children' (2008)

  "Few events in a person's life have the ability to completely destroy them. But an accusation of child sex abuse, true or not, can ruin careers, families and reputations. In the past two years, an estimated 270 accusations of child sex abuse have occurred in the county. Of the 92 felony child abuse cases that went to trial during that time, only two ended in not guilty verdicts -- verdicts that won't wipe the slate clean. [...] Boy Scouts of America requires adult leaders to have a background check and to go through an hourlong course that reviews policies and practices, such as adults not sleeping in the same tent as a boy and how to handle a situation when a child tells you another adult has made him feel uncomfortable. The Salvation Army requires a background check, and all coaches and volunteers are required to watch a video on working with children, said Mark Thompson, a Salisbury Salvation Army director who serves as school board vice president. Generally, many organizations and youth leaders have instituted a buddy system when it comes to working with minors. "You shouldn't be alone with other people's children," said Michelle Hughes, the Life Crisis Center executive director. "It's not like years ago when teachers could identify a kid that needed a little extra and take him home for dinner. It's not like that anymore." [...] "No adult can be alone with boys," Wright said. "It must be two." In addition to avoiding being alone with a child, individuals who work with children should be careful not to cross the boundaries of the working relationship, said Thompson. "Be sure that you understand that you are the adult and they are the children," Thompson said. He cautioned adults who work with children to be careful of how you touch them, and to watch out for signs and sharing personal information. "It's not illegal to show genuine affection for a child," Ruark said. "But if it goes beyond that ... adults need to be cognizant of that. When you get to the point where you are touching inappropriately, even unintentional, that creates concern. Just make sure you understand where the lines are concerning friendship or expressions of love for a child." Thompson also cautioned workers who interact with children to keep close tabs on their emotions. Don't get caught up in the feeling that someone needs you or someone loves you. "You always have to have it in the back of your mind that they are the child," Thompson said. "You must always keep boundaries clear in the back of your mind. No matter how much interest that child shows in you. You can't let yourself get carried away in the moment.".

• Schoolchildren hit with hugging ban (2009)

  "An Australian school has banned hugging and other displays of affection between pre-teen boys and girls in order to set a good example for younger students. Largs Bay Primary School in the southern city of Adelaide said the policy is aimed at grade six and seven students, aged 11 to 12."

Confinement/detainment of children and consequences

In 2014/15, these children and their parents were repeatedly stalked and harassed by government agents for practising free-range parenting. This was juxtaposed against "helicopter parenting" throughout the 10s, in a series of controversies

Lenore Skenazy is one of the better known activists against regressive parenting and restrictive treatment of small children by protective state authorities. She continues to shine a light on more recent examples of this type of story.

• Working Mom Arrested for Letting Her 9-Year-Old Play Alone at Park (2014)

  "In South Carolina, a 46-year-old black woman has been arrested for letting her daughter play in a nearby park while trying to earn a living. "The mother, Debra Harrell, has been booked for unlawful conduct towards a child," a local TV station reports. "The incident report goes into great detail, even saying the mother confessed to leaving her nine-year-old daughter at a park while she went to work." [...] By arresting this mom (presumably causing her to lose her job) and putting the child in foster care, the state has caused the child far more trauma than she was ever likely to suffer in the park, whatever one thinks of the decision to leave her there. Even if the state felt it had the right to declare this parenting decision impermissible, couldn't they have given this woman a simple warning before taking custody? [...] Statistically speaking, the South Carolina mother would almost certainly be putting her daughter in more danger if she strapped her into the car beside her for a hypothetical one-hour daily commute. No one would arrest her for that."

• This Widow's 4 Kids Were Taken After She Left Them Home Alone (2014)

  "My decision to allow my kids to stay home for a few hours while I went to school for several hours, a mile away, turned out to be the most catastrophically life-altering decision I've ever made. A neighbor noticed me walking to school without the kids and called the police. When I arrived home several hours later, I found a note on the door, but no kids inside. Despite having been told my whereabouts, neither the police nor the CPS workers who removed my kids from our home made any effort to find me, instead regarding the situation as an emergency, procedurally."

• The day I left my son in the car (2014)

  "I cracked the windows and child-locked the doors and double-clicked my keys so that the car alarm was set. And then I left him in the car for about five minutes. He didn't die. He wasn't kidnapped or assaulted or forgotten or dragged across state lines by a carjacker. When I returned to the car, he was still playing his game, smiling, or more likely smirking at having gotten what he wanted from his spineless mama. I tossed the headphones onto the passenger seat and put the keys in the ignition. [...] And so, it came as more than a shock to me when, on the way home from the airport, I listened to a voice mail from an officer at my family's local police department explaining that a bystander had noticed me leaving my son in the car, had recorded the incident using a phone's camera, and had then contacted the police. By the time the police arrived, I had already left the scene, and by the time they looked up the license plate number of the minivan and traced it to my parents, I was flying home. [...] My lawyer told me he'd had a productive conversation with the officer involved, that he'd explained I was a loving and responsible mother who'd had a "lapse in judgment," and that it seemed quite possible charges would not be pressed. For a while, it looked like he was right. But nine months later, a few minutes after dropping my kids off at school, I was walking to a coffee shop when my cellphone rang. Another officer asked if I was Kim Brooks and if I was aware there was a warrant out for my arrest."

• Parents in trouble again for letting kids walk alone (2015)

  "Maryland parents accused of child neglect for letting their kids roam around their neighborhood had to retrieve them from the county's Children's Protective Services after police removed the youngsters from a park. At about 4:55 p.m. ET Sunday, Montgomery County police received a call to check on the welfare of Danielle and Sasha Meitiv's children — Rafi, 10, and Dvora, 6 — at a park here. Officers found the children unattended and brought them to the agency as part of protocol, they said. [...] Officers picked up the children about two blocks from home, Rafi said, telling them they would drop them off at home. Instead, the two sat in a patrol car for 2½ hours then were taken about 10 miles away to Children's Protective Services offices in Rockville, Md. The Meitivs said they had taken the children to the park at around 4 p.m. and told them to be home by 6 p.m. When the children hadn't returned by 6:30, the Meitivs started looking frantically for them. Social workers did not contact them until after 8 p.m., the couple said. Their children were released to them at 10:30 p.m. Danielle and Alexander "Sasha" Meitiv say they are not endangering their children by letting them walk around without supervision. "I can't believe we're going through this again," Danielle Meitiv said. "They've been missing since 6 o'clock. Somebody called 911, the police called CPS, they decided to bring the kids here and they didn't call us." To take the children home, the Meitivs had to sign a safety plan that prohibits them from leaving their children unattended, they said."

• More From America's Worst Mom: 9-Year-Old On The Subway, Continued (2008)

  "Last week I wrote a column for my newspaper, The New York Sun, titled, "Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride The Subway." It basically said that I let him do this because he wanted to take a trip solo, he knew how to read the map, and I had every confidence that he could find his way home. Two days later, said son and I found ourselves on the Today Show, MSNBC and FoxNews [...] My vision of the world, especially childrearing, turns out to be starkly at odds with the mainstream one, which believes that the world (especially New York) is chock-a-block with extras from "Saw III." [...] Okay, so it happened several time zones away and the station has been flogging this same awful story for three months. Does it occur to most viewers that a crime like this must be pretty rare, if the station has to talk about one as far away as, say, Portugal? Or Aruba? No! [...] I met a guy at a party last week who makes his daughter phone home after walking one block to her friend's house. And he's in a suburb. The leafy kind! [...] The fact that a child is literally forty times more likely to die in a car accident than at a stranger's hands makes no difference. Driving is seen as safe. Freedom - once a right of childhood -- is seen as suicidal."

Criminalization, medicalization and registration of children/youth

The pipeline to a place on the sex offender registry

Unaffiliated site: ETAY, SOL Research (summary), (list of cases) and see also ageism.

Society both infantilizes and criminalizes minors, making them easy prey for the justice system. Children as young as 9 have been registered as a sexual offender (the practice is common from 12) and added to state databases from as early as the age of 6. An article has been established to put forth the argument against criminalizing youth, using examples to support its case.

Anal probing (of suspected victims), penile plethysmography and aversion therapy are regularly used on minors who have been involved in relationships - even with age peers. Consent laws can also criminalize the boyfriends of teenage girls who get pregnant, preventing the girls having access to healthcare, as in Peru.

• Senator Hawley’s Disingenuous Attack against Judge Jackson’s Record on Child Pornography (2022)

“Senator Hawley is a bright guy, but if he ever handled a child-pornography case in the brief time he spent as a practicing lawyer before he sought public office, that is not apparent. [...] I can’t tell you how much I hated these cases [...] When the dust settled in computer-porn cases, it often turned out that the culprit was a kid who wasn’t much older than the children depicted in the porn.”

• How my son's innocent teenage fumblings saw him branded a rapist, hounded out of school and left sobbing in emotional agony (2024)

"Today, it seems that so many young women are primed to see every tiny misstep by their male peers as sexual assault, from an ill-judged kiss to an attempt to hold hands. Anything that makes them feel even a tad uncomfortable, often long after the fact, is deemed to be assault. [...] I have sons — I am too scared to say how many in case it helps identify my family — and throughout their young lives they have routinely been told by their young female friends that they ‘hate men’ and that ‘all men are rapists’. So fevered has the atmosphere among young women become that today something as innocent as a male tapping you on the shoulder can be construed as assault. [...] Yet I deplore the way this has created a chilling new double standard. When girls make mistakes and behave badly, it’s viewed as a forgivable rite of passage. But when inexperienced young boys do the same, they often face toxic accusations, which can quite literally destroy lives. I should know. My son is one such inexperienced boy and, because of this, our lives have been a living hell for the past three years. Aged 13, in 2019, my son was just starting to get interested in girls. He got involved in flirtations with a few girls and one sent him a topless photo by phone (this is a shockingly common practice among early teens). With another girl there was saucy texting and some mutual touching. [...] The girls, who were equally culpable, as sending nude photographs is both an offence and against the school rules, were dealt with discreetly. A quiet word was had with them and their parents and that was an end to it. Conversely, my son, who’d never been in trouble before, was suspended for two days — the final step before expulsion. [...] I believed the school knew best. It didn’t. Such a public and severe punishment persuaded his peers that there was ‘no smoke without fire’. What followed was a merciless campaign of intimidation and bullying. My son was called a ‘rapist’, a ‘nonce’ and told he should be castrated. He was urged to kill himself on a daily basis. He was attacked by a mob in the playground and one boy threatened to stab him. [...] But if we thought things would get better when schools reopened, we were wrong. In late 2021, one of the girls decided to call the police and accuse my son of sexual assault. I have no idea why, but my son was told by an acquaintance that it was because she was ‘feeling bored’. The police were called to his school and he was questioned without his parents present. [...] Fortunately, the police were far more empathetic than the school. The detective who investigated the case told us that, quite rightly, every accusation was treated seriously. That said, he also relayed that, in the past few years, the police had been inundated with similar calls from teenage girls whipped into a frenzy by the MeToo movement."

• A 5-Year-Old Pulled Down a 3-Year-Old's Pants. The Preschool Workers Are on Trial (2023)

"Two Colorado child care workers will go on trial this June for presiding over a day care center where a 5-year-old pulled down a 3-year-old's pants. Amy Lovato and Roberta Rodriguez of The Schoolhouse day care center in Poncha Springs face criminal charges for not reporting this incident to the authorities quickly enough, and for putting the children in danger. "Let this fact not be obscured: We are here because one preschooler pulled down another preschooler's pants," Jason Flores-Williams, Lovato's attorney, told 11th Judicial District Judge Brian Green on Thursday, asking him to dismiss the charges."

• Wisconsin DA says 6 year old is a sex offender for "playing doctor." (2011)

"Parents of a five-year-old girl in Grant County, Wisconsin are pressing charges for first-degree sexual assault against a then six-year-old (now seven-year-old) boy. The accusation? Playing doctor with their daughter. Although too young to be prosecuted, the boy could be listed on the permanent sex offender registry when he turns 18. [...] There's also a clear conflic of interests and political grandstanding. The alleged "victim" is the daughter of a "well known politician." Her brother -- the politician's son -- was also playing "doctor." He's not being charged. The social worker who brought the case forward? The girl's aunt. Something is very, very rotten in the state of Denmark. The boy's family is under a gag order. In other words, the public is only being allowed to hear the "well known politician's" side of the story. Refer back to the paragraph on the brutality of the court of public opinion if you don't understand why this is a very big deal."

• Charging Kid Who Played Doctor Wasn’t Malicious (2013)

"It was "poor judgment," but not unconstitutional, to charge a 6-year-old with sexual assault after he played doctor with other children, the 7th Circuit ruled. D.B., as he is named in the court record, had allegedly been interested in playing doctor that September 2010 because the 6-year-old had just concluded extensive medical testing for digestive problems, which included rectal examinations and enemas. While playing with 5-year-old C.C. and her twin brother W.C. in his Lancaster, Wis., backyard, D.B. was interrupted by the twins' mother. She reported D.B. to the Grant County Department of Social Services, saying she saw D.B. put his finger in her daughter's anus. D.B. claimed that he touched C.C.'s bare butt. A district attorney then filed a petition in court claiming D.B. had committed first-degree sexual assault, and needed public protection."

• Kindergartner is a sex offender? Really?" (2014)

"It seems a five-year-old Surprise boy was on the playground last spring when suddenly he pulled his pants down. The kid was hauled to the office and forced to sign a form that essentially labeled him a budding sex fiend. [...] Dysart officials told The Republic that administrators were just following school policy, which says the act of pulling down one's pants is sexual misconduct. [...] "There are standards of conduct that are inappropriate on a school campus regardless of the grade level of the student," Dysart Assistant Superintendent Jim Dean told The Republic's Jackee Coe. "Exposing oneself is never going to be appropriate in any school situation." [...] According to the little boy's mother, her son was on the playground at Ashton Ranch Elementary School on April 15 when another kid told him to pull down his pants or else it would be done for him. So the boy complied. [...] It took the mother hiring an attorney to get the sexual-misconduct referral out of the boys' school file."

• Police: Girl facing child pornography charges (2022)

"The girl was arrested by the Frederick County Sheriff's Office on April 7 and charged with possession of child pornography, production of child pornography and distribution of child pornography. Lt. Warren W. Gosnell, Sheriff's Office spokesman, said in an email that an anonymous tip led to the investigation, which involves images of a boy and girl under 16 found on a phone. He said the investigation is school-related but wouldn't say which school. [...] The maximum juvenile penalty for any crime would be incarceration in a juvenile prison run by the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice until the offender turns 21. Under adult penalties, a juvenile between 15 and 18 convicted of child pornography production and distribution for a first offense faces between one and 20 years although a judge could sentence below the minimum. If the offender is seven or more years older than the victim, there is a three-year mandatory minimum and a 30-year maximum. Spicer noted child pornography laws were written before cellphones became ubiquitous and "sexting," in which a person sends nude or sexually explicit images by phone, became common. [...] Spicer said the law is outdated due to changing technology. "There is a need for more updated laws to reflect the reality of what technology permits juveniles to do," he said. "The statute hasn't kept up with the technology.""

• When Kids Are Sex Offenders (ft. Human Rights Watch report, 2013)

"Maya R., now age 28 and a resident of Michigan, was arrested at the age of 10 for sexual experimentation. ‘Me and my step brothers, who were ages 8 and 5, “flashed” each other and play-acted sex while fully-clothed.’ A year later, Maya pled guilty to the charges of criminal sexual conduct in the first and second degree, offenses that required her to register as a sex offender for 25 years. [...] In 2006, a 13-year old girl from Ogden, Utah was arrested for rape for having consensual sex with her 12-year-old boyfriend. Her 12-year-old boyfriend was found guilty of violating the same law for engaging in sexual activity with her, as she was also a child under the age of 14 at the time. [...] Youth sex offenders on the registry experience severe psychological harm. They are stigmatized, isolated, often depressed. Many consider suicide, and some succeed. They and their families have experienced harassment and physical violence. They are sometimes shot at, beaten, even murdered; many are repeatedly threatened with violence. Some young people have to post signs stating ‘sex offender lives here’ in the windows of their homes; others have to carry drivers’ licenses with ‘sex offender’ printed on them in bright orange capital letters. Youth sex offenders on the registry are sometimes denied access to education because residency restriction laws prevent them from being in or near a school. Youth sex offender registrants despair of ever finding employment, even while they are burdened with mandatory fees that can reach into the hundreds of dollars on an annual basis."

• Minnesota Prosecutor Charges Sexting Teenage Girl With Child Pornography (2018)

"A 14-year-old Minnesota girl is fighting criminal charges that have the potential to destroy her future, including her ability to obtain housing, to enroll in college programs, and even to pursue some career paths. Her case does not involve harm to others. It does not involve damage to property. And it does not have anything to do with illegal substances. Rather her young life could be ruined all because she sent an explicit Snapchat of herself to a boy she liked. In the case, Jane Doe used the phone-based application Snapchat to send a revealing selfie to a boy at her school in Southern Minnesota. He went on to make a copy and distribute it to other students without Jane’s permission."

• Eleven-year-old girl charged with rape (2009)

"Local law enforcement deals with sex offenders almost daily, but in the past couple of months, Zanesville police have dealt with one of the youngest cases officers can remember - an 11-year-old girl charged with three counts of rape. Detective Randy Ritchason said the girl had some type of sexual contact with three other children - two boys and a girl -all under the age of 10. She was charged in Muskingum County Juvenile Court."

• Teen girl charged with posting nude photos on Internet (Archive) (2004)

A 15-year-old girl has been arrested for taking nude photographs of her self and posting them on the Internet, police said. The girl, whose identity was withheld, was accused of sending out photographs of herself in various states of undress and performing a variety of sexual acts. She sent them to people she met in chat rooms on the Internet, police said. Police seized her computer and found dozens of photographs stored on the hard drive. Authorities did not say how police learned about the girl. She has been charged with sexual abuse of children, possession of child pornography and dissemination of child pornography."

• 15-Year-Old Ohio Girl Arrested For Distributing Nude Photos of Herself, May Have to Register as a Sex Offender (2008)

  "A 15-year-old girl stands accused of distributing nude photos of herself to other minors, and one state legislator is questioning whether or not she should be labeled a sex offender. The girl, a student at Licking Valley High School, was arrested Friday after school officials discovered the materials and brought in a police investigation. The girl, whose name has not been released, now faces two charges: illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material, a second degree felony; and possession of criminal tools, a fifth degree felony. For an adult convicted of child pornography it requires a Tier II sexual offender classification. However Jennifer Brindisi, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, said the judge has flexibility with a juvenile of this defendant's age. The junvenille section of Senate Bill 10 includes a part which states that if the child is a first-time offender and age 14 or 15 that the judge can decide not to make him or her register. The incident comes immediately following a visit from Licking County Prosecutor Ken Oswalt, who had been visiting area high schools and educating teens on the consequences of such an action. Oswalt talked about the dangers of this behavior, both in terms of personal embarrassment as well as contribution to child pornography on the internet."

• The Autistic Children Who Are Labeled As Sex Offenders (2017)

""Most times with children there is no sexual [motivation]," Pittman explains, but "the moment the touching looks sexual, though, society labels them pedophiles." Rogers added that "it doesn't matter if a person is on the spectrum. They're going to be treated like any sex offender." When an autistic child pulls his pants down in a grocery store, Pittman explains, "We look at [the situation] from the lens [of] a 50 year old man [flashing people]." Minors are not listed publicly on the sex offender registry, but they're forbidden from attending school because that's where children congregate. Once they turn 18, most states require them to register on the public sex offender list with an identifying photo. Children like Anthony would be identified as child pornography distributors for sending nude selfies, and required to disclose their status as a registered sex offender to any employers in some states. "There's a lot of homelessness and depression [because people can't get jobs]," Pittman explains. "We have a whole new generation of victims on this law.""

• 8-year-old boy charged with sexual assault (2007)

"Authorities say that an 8-year-old boy who was charged with sexually abusing a 6-year-old boy told police he got the idea after watching an R-rated movie. [...] The Buffalo News reports that the 8-year-old, who was released to his mother, faces charges of criminal sexual act and aggravated sexual abuse, both felonies. He also faces charges of misdemeanor forcible touching and sexual misconduct."

• Girl, 13, charged as sex offender and victim (2006)

"Utah Supreme Court justices acknowledged Tuesday that they were struggling to wrap their minds around the concept that a 13-year-old girl could be both an offender and a victim for the same act – in this case, having consensual sex with her 12-year-old boyfriend. The Ogden, Utah, girl was put in this odd position because she was found guilty of violating a state law that prohibits sex with someone under age 14. She also was the victim in the case against her boyfriend, who was found guilty of the same violation by engaging in sexual activity with her. “The only thing that comes close to this is dueling,” said Associate Chief Justice Michael Wilkins, noting that two people who take 20 paces and then shoot could each be considered both victim and offender."

• Police Want to Force a 17-Year-Old Accused of Sexting His Girlfriend to Take More Explicit Photos As Evidence (2014)

"Prosecutors and police in Manassas City, Virginia, have a warrant to photograph a 17-year-old’s penis in hopes of convicting him as a sex offender for sending a dirty video to his 15-year-old girlfriend. The boy’s lawyer tells the Washington Post that after he refused to plead guilty, prosecutors said they would need to “just take him down to the hospital, give him a shot, and then take the pictures that we need.” Of his erect genitalia. [...] As if it weren’t bad enough already, NBC Washington reports that police already photographed the boy’s penis when they arrested him [...] “He said they took him to a room and took pictures of his genitalia,” Stacy Bigley said. “I asked if they’re allowed to do that, and [the 17-year-old] said, ‘I tried to refuse,’” which he did, he didn’t want to do it. They told him if he did not they would do it by force.” [...] The teenager’s lawyer said prosecutors have said they will “use special software to compare pictures of this penis to this penis.”"

[Editor: The lead detective in this case eventually shot himself in the head following a dramatic manhunt in which he was accused of "child" sex crimes himself]

• Perverted Justice. Sex offender laws represent the triumph of outrage over reason. (2011) copy

  "According to The Dallas Morning News, the sex offender registry in Texas, where Washington lives, includes about 4,000 people who were minors when they committed their crimes, a quarter of whom were under 14."

  "A man who was convicted of statutory rape when he was 16 for having consensual sex with his 14-year-old girlfriend told Human Rights Watch: "We were in love. And now we are married. So it's like I am on the registry for having premarital sex. Does having premarital sex make me a danger to society? My wife doesn't think so.""

  "Consider the case of Tony Washington, a promising college football player whose professional career was derailed by a conversation-stopping offense he committed almost a decade ago: At the age of 16, he had consensual sex with his 15-year-old sister."

Thought crime and Newspeak

Actual American Police Decoy (credit - NYT Magazine)

The manipulation of language and abuse of rhetoric are common features of the war on "sexual offending". In some examples, such as Calgary Police's pursuit of a 15 year old boy for textual "child pornography" (sexting), this is particularly salient.

• Redmond detectives arrest man in undercover online child rape operation (2023)

  "Detectives posed as a 12-year-old girl on a location-based social networking and dating application, according to the Redmond Police Department. The conversation began in early March and the man was told several times that he was talking to a 12-year-old girl. However, he kept engaging in sexually motivated conversations, believing she was a minor." [So, not only is the "raped" girl fake, she was never "raped", and they posed her on Tinder, which is clearly implausible and fantastical to anybody bar the most witless of baby-boomers]

• Notoriously woke Virginia school district kept pedophile school counselor on staff a year AFTER bosses were told he'd been arrested for soliciting child prostitute (2022)

  "Darren Lamar Thornton, 50, remained employed by Glasgow Middle School in Lincolnia, Virginia, even after he'd been convicted of a sex crime and a year after they'd been notified of his arrest, according to WUSA9. He'd previously served as a counselor and boys' varsity basketball coach in a different county from 2006 to 2020. Thornton was arrested for offering a minor money for sex in November of 2020 in Chesterfield County."
  [Editor: Only at the end of the article, and after multiple graphics, do we get to learn about the true nature of Thornton's "crime", bolded below]
  "He was trapped in a sting via an online chat with an undercover officer who said she was 17, and Thornton agreed to meet."
  [Editor: The New York Times explains how this particular swindle works. Just under a month earlier, the very same British paper as in the example above described a female prison inmate as a "pedophile" for "raping two boys aged 14 and 17 in 2018"

• 12-year-old girl raped in woods after being manipulated and groomed by older man she met online (2015)

  "The girl, who comes from Worthing, had been in contact with a young man who said he was 18, in early June, online through two phone apps, Whisper and Kik, and arranged to meet him. They first met at about 3pm on Friday June 5, when he picked her up from outside Goring railway station in a silver or grey Fiat Punto. They drove to the car park at the end of Angmering High Street, opposite Manor Nurseries where they parked and kissed for a while. He then dropped her off back in Worthing. They then met again two days later at about midday on Sunday June 7 outside Tesco Express in Rectory Road, Worthing and drove to the same place in Angmering. From there they walked south down a track parallel to the A280 and alongside Manor Nurseries to a wooded area, where they had sexual intercourse, stopping when they saw some dog walkers nearby. The incidents were not reported to the police until June 25. [...] "This case is another example of what can result from unwary and unsupervised use of the web by young people who need to be really careful in their contacts with people they do not know.""

• Paedophile tried to gag and tie up man (2008)

  "A PAEDOPHILE tried to gag and tie up a man while he slept in his flat, a court heard. Vincent Burns, 69, invited his 26-year-old victim back to his home after drinking together in a city centre pub." [Editor: At no other place in this article is a justification given for labeling this man a pedophile]

The Daily Mail up to their usual Orwellian games in 2024

Porn cartoons and sex dolls criminalized

See Wikipedia - Legal status of fictional pornography depicting minors.

In one example in the UK, a "team of researchers" - credentialed Feminists at major universities, launched a campaign entitled "CAMPAIGN AGAINST SEX ROBOTS" (capitals theirs).

• Tasmanian man jailed after AI-generated child abuse material found on computer (2024)

  "Police raided his home in the state’s Tamar Valley region in May and found hundreds of files depicting child abuse on his computer. A significant amount of it was generated using artificial intelligence, marking the first time police had located and seized AI-generated child abuse material in Tasmania, the Australian federal police (AFP) said on Saturday. [...] In a statement released Saturday, AFP Det Sgt Aaron Hardcastle said abuse material remained repulsive and abhorrent regardless of whether it was AI-generated or involved real exploited children. He said police would continue to target those who shared such material."

• Man charged with importing child sex doll and possession of 71 child porn [lolicon manga^NW] images (2023)

  "Mr Wright stands accused of importing a child sex doll from Japan - the first known charge of its kind in this country. He is accused of knowingly having child pornography in the form of a “torso” of a child with what is described as a “penetrable anus and vagina.” The doll was discovered contained in a box with a “Japanese-style” drawing of a “naked” child, posed with its legs spread open, according to the charge. He also stands accused of having another doll of a child, which is described as being “17 years old” on the box it was contained within. He’s also charged with possession of another doll, which was a “model of a young child’s mouth,” again in a box which contained a drawing of a “young female child." The offences are contrary to Section Six of the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998. The possession offences are alleged to have occurred at the accused’s home address on July 24, 2017. Apart from those charges Mr Wright stands accused of attempting to commit an offence “by purchasing and attempting to import a child sex doll,” which is contrary to common law."

• Hucknall teenager who downloaded dozens of 'anime' cartoon child porn images given suspended prison sentence (2022)

  "Police visited Ben Burton's home address and seized his mobile phone on November 28, 2020, said prosecutor Anthony Chung. It contained 25 Category A images, 15 Category B images, and 48 Category C images of female characters, that were deemed to be aged between five and 14. When he was interviewed, Burton said he received the images via Facebook messenger. [...] Recorder Michael Auty said: "What troubles me is his disinclination to accept that he had any sexual interest in the imagery. Frankly, I don't believe him." He told Burton: "There is understandable public concern about any offences concerning the possession of indecent images of children. "This case is unusual as the pictures weren't of real children. "Whether these children were real or represented in anime, or any other artistic form, the protection of children is regarded as of paramount importance in a civilised society.”"

• Man who avoided jail after child porn conviction says he 'accidentally' clicked link (2022)

  "A 25-year-old man who claims he unknowingly downloaded animated child pornography has told how one click on a website resulted in his arrest and conviction in court. Nabil Ibrahim of Lehenaghmore, Togher, Co. Cork, appeared before in court last week where pleaded guilty to having child pornography at his home on February 3, 2019. [...] "It was just by accident," he said. "I was on a social media site. It was Tumblr and I clicked on it." Asked why he clicked on the link or folder, Ibrahim said: "I don't know. I wasn't sure what it was. It just said 'illegal' or something like that. All this happened four years ago - it's been going on quite a while." [...] Over the past decade, Gardaí have seized increasing amounts of virtual or simulated child pornography in the form of cartoons, text and computer graphic images. [...] Realistic "child sex dolls" have also been seized by authorities in recent years. Unlike several other western countries - including the US and Switzerland - Ireland categorises all types of child sex abuse material, simulated or real, as child pornography. Offenders face up to five years for possession and 14 years for producing or distributing such material."

• Man Gets Three Months in Jail for Possession of Cartoon Porn (2013)

  "Ronald Clark's lawyer called his client's three-month jail sentence for possession of cartoon pornography a case of "law gone mad." The New Zealand resident claims he downloaded the videos, which depict "clearly young" elves, pixies, trolls "and other fantasy creatures having sex," three years ago as "a bit of a laugh." [...] He also asked the court if his conviction in this case couldn't lead to someone else being charged for "possessing objectionable images of stick figures." But at least one person didn't find Clark's conviction an absurd overreach on the part of the justice system. Alan Bell, director of the anti-child pornography group ECPAT said he was worried the images could encourage people "to migrate from there to the real thing." "The distribution of it is damaging," he continued. "You have to ask what impact does it have even if it's not harming [an individual child]." New Zealand's courts have taken issue with cartoon pornography in the past, most recently charging a Chinese student for importing DVDs containing "cartoon animations depicting rape, abuse, and bestiality involving eels." Those charges were eventually dropped."

Realistic "child-like" sex-dolls have opened up new possibilities for MAPs, but have drawn fire from feminists

• Child porn in cartoon style - man convicted (2008)

  "A MAN who downloaded “Tomb Raider”-style pictures of computer-generated child pornography has been convicted by a Teesside jury. Robul Hoque had sophisticated realistic images of children on his hard drive seized by police in October 2006. The unusual case involving computer graphics is thought to be the first of its type and an important test case. Hoque, 32, told the Gazette: “I haven’t set out to break the law in any way, shape or form. “If I’d had any sort of inkling these were illegal, I would have told the police about them myself. I don’t go looking for child porn. I’m not attracted to kids. I’m not interested in kids.” [...] Jurors were told they should convict if they concluded that a picture looked like a photo. “It is about child pornography,” prosecutor David Brooke told the court [...] “Though no actual child has been abused, it helps to feed the demand.”"

• Manga and Anime Fans Warned After British Man Convicted of Possessing Cartoon 'Child Porn' (2014)

  "A man from Middlesbrough is believed to have become the first person in British legal history to be convicted over possession of prohibited cartoon images of children. Robul Hoque, 39, made legal history after he was convicted of possessing a collection of inappropriate Japanese Manga or Anime-style images of children. The cartoons were classed as prohibited as they contained images of young girls, some wearing school uniforms, exposing themselves or taking part in sexual activity, reported the Evening Gazette. The court heard how Hoque became a "test case" after nearly 300 cartoon stills and moving images were found on his hard drive after police seized his computer in June 2012. [...] Hoque's defence barrister Richard Bennett said his conviction should "serve as a warning to every Manga and Anime fan" to be careful as these images are were freely available on legitimate sites. He added: "It seems there are many thousands of people in this country, if they are less then careful, who may find themselves in that position, too.""

• Simpsons cartoon rip-off is child porn - judge (2008)

  "A Supreme Court judge in Australia has ruled that an internet cartoon in which look-a-like child characters from The Simpsons engage in sexual acts is child pornography." [...] But Justice Adams agreed with the magistrate, finding that while The Simpsons characters had hands with four fingers and their faces were "markedly and deliberately different to those of any possible human being", the mere fact that they were not realistic representations of human beings did not mean that they could not be considered people. Justice Adams said the purpose of the legislation was to stop sexual exploitation and child abuse where images are depicted of "real" children. However it was also to deter the production of other material, including cartoons, that could "fuel demand for material that does involve the abuse of children""

• Man fined for downloading Simpsons cartoon porn (2009)

  "A MAN pleaded guilty yesterday to possessing child pornography after he downloaded images of characters from The Simpsons and Pokemon naked and performing sex acts on each other. Glenn Phillip McGuire, 28, had originally pleaded not guilty after police found six such images of the cartoon characters on his computer. The images had been doctored or drawn by unknown people and were downloaded while McGuire was surfing the Limewire website. The Supreme Court ruled last December that child pornography can include sexually explicit images of cartoon characters. McGuire changed his plea in Newcastle Local Court yesterday to guilty and was convicted, fined $1000 and put on a 12-month good behaviour bond. The Supreme Court ruling came after a man was convicted in Parramatta Local Court in February last year of possessing pornographic images of child cartoon characters."

Motive-dependent crimes

• Judge refuses to reduce 48-year prison sentence (2008)

  "URBANA – A Champaign County judge refused Friday to reduce the 48-year prison sentence of a former Urbana teacher convicted of child molestation. [...] Clem sentenced White in early April on eight counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse to which White pleaded guilty in February. White admitted that he had eight blindfolded girls, about ages 7 to 9, lick sauces off a banana for his own sexual gratification [...] White's actions have already spurred several lawsuits against him and the Urbana and McLean county school districts by the parents of the girls. So far, two victims have reached settlements with Urbana District 116 of $390,000 and $300,000 in present-day cash. Another for $250,000 is expected to be approved by a judge later this month. The way the settlements are structured, the girls may end up receiving more than $1 million each over the course of their lives.""

• Judge calls Olsen a 'high-risk' pedophile in the early stages (2007)

  "A judge sentenced former substitute teacher Eric Norman Olsen to five years in prison on Friday, calling him the first true pedophile she has seen in her years on the bench. [...] Uhler said she was inclined to give Olsen probation at first, but after reviewing his diagnostic report she had no choice but to send him to prison. "The defendant was a pedophile in the early stages," she said. "He is at high risk to re-offend." [...] He was arrested last July after allegations arose that he inappropriately touched young girls. Most of the contact involved children sitting on his lap. He told police the contact sexually aroused him. [...] She said a five-year sentence is "extremely lenient.""

• Court accused of 'Victorian standards' in trial (2010)

  "A SOUTH Devon lawyer hit out at a court's Victorian standards yesterday after his client was convicted of possessing indecent photographs of girls wearing swimwear and clothes. Solicitor Nigel Butt spoke out after a Teignmouth man was found guilty after a trial of possessing indecent images of young women. Mr Butt was not allowed to show the magistrates best selling magazines like Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone which had published topless and explicitly sexual photographs of under-age celebrities. After the verdict, Totnes-based lawyer Mr Butt said: "This decision will potentially reverberate throughout the country and will have a huge impact on magazines, film producers and directors, photographers and newspaper editors because the law has to be applied equally and evenly to everything. "You can see more flesh exposed on a Friday or Saturday night in town or on a beach than was on my client's computer. "This court has applied Victorian standards in 2010 and their findings are perverse.""

Censorship

See Censorship and Child Pornography for more analysis of this topic.

"Moms for Liberty" - a group that campaigned for mandating a surveillance state in school libraries

Age-based restrictions against "inappropriate" content have always exhibited an erotophobic bias, but they are increasingly being used to crack down on politically inconvenient narratives and liberal sex education. Moderate lawmakers failed to heed the warnings and sometimes even encouraged hysteria in the early 21st Century, when Youth Erotica began to be used as an excuse for infringements upon civil liberties and digital privacy. As our article on that subject reveals, this has often led to bizarre and discriminatory regulations, such as Australia's so-called "small breast ban".

• Students lose access to books amid ‘state-sponsored purging of ideas’ (2022)

  "In the past two years, six states have passed laws that mandate parental involvement in reviewing books, making it easier for parents to remove books or restrict the texts available at school, according to a tally kept by nonprofit EveryLibrary. Five states are considering similar legislation. [...] “This is a state-sponsored purging of ideas and identities that has no precedent in the United States of America,” said John Chrastka, EveryLibrary’s executive director. “We’re witnessing the silencing of stories and the suppressing of information [that will make] the next generation less able to function in society.” [...] Mounting book challenges, bans and clandestine removals, all of which reached historic highs during the past school year, are also eroding students’ freedom to read. Simultaneously, Republican legislators in at least nine states are pushing laws that force school library databases to block certain content. Everywhere, the books targeted are mostly written by and about people of color and LGBTQ individuals, according to analyses conducted by the American Library Association and PEN America. [...] The sharp increase in oversight and control of children’s reading at school is welcomed by some parents, conservative pundits and lawmakers who argue that unsupervised students will stumble across texts that expose them to sexual topics too early or that undermine their family’s beliefs and values. Library advocates say that existing book challenge procedures, as well as the expertise of credentialed school librarians, were already sufficient to ensure school book collections remain appropriate. The spike in regulation of school reading has some educators reconsidering the profession, amid a catastrophic national teacher shortage. [...] Under a new five-page policy, book purchases must be approved by a vaguely defined set of administrators, possibly including the superintendent, with input from “parents and community members.” The policy prohibits any materials that contain “sexual acts” (or “nudity” at the elementary and middle-school levels); requires libraries to publish inventories; makes it easier for parents to remove books; and asserts parents can, at any time, receive a list of books their children have checked out. The document concludes: “While librarians are trained in selecting materials … the ultimate determination of appropriateness for a minor lies with the parent.” [...] “I think the intent of the policy is to frighten teachers and librarians into a very high degree of self-censorship, and it will work beautifully,” she said, adding that ex-colleagues of hers are already boxing up their classroom libraries. [...] In Florida, the Flagler County district debuted a three-tiered library system this past spring. The first level grants students access to the entire library. At level two, parents can specify up to five titles their children cannot check out. At level three, children have no access to books except titles specified by their parents. [...] Another increasingly popular tactic is to require parental sign-off before librarians hand books to children. One of the districts doing so is Virginia’s Bedford County Public Schools, which has debuted a book-lending system that emails parents every time their child checks out a book. [...] Amy Snead, a mother of four and chair of the Bedford County chapter of parental rights group Moms for Liberty, said her organization pushed for the books policy. She said it will prevent children from encountering sexually explicit material."

• Comment: Porn or better sex education? (2013)

  "There is a lot of policy and media concern about young people accessing pornography and the potential for it to cause harm, including sexual violence. [...] Whatever your views on pornography, most sensible adults would agree that pornography is not the best place to learn about relationships, sex and sexuality. [...] So should we really be concerned about pornography? It is clear from the young people visiting our services that more and more are seeing pornography. But most can tell the difference between fantasy and reality. [...] When it comes to the proposal for internet safety filters to be activated as a default, there are many people who think this is sensible, reasonable and proportionate. One person’s perfectly reasonable suggestion – say, that “adult” material should be filtered out by internet service providers – is another person’s creeping censorship. I reserve judgement at this stage. The devil is in the detail. But I am concerned. Brook is all too often accustomed to our online content running afoul of crude filtering software. One Wi-Fi provider blocked our website because it was listed under “sex education”. I am worried about those young people whose access to sex and relationships advice could be inadvertently blocked by these filters. Despite reassurance from the Prime Minister that there will be a ‘white list’ of sites to prevent this happening, we and our colleagues at online charity YouthNet are mindful that this will be tricky to get right, and of the devastating effects of getting it wrong."

• David Cameron’s plan for internet-porn filters ‘risks hurting LGBT community’ (2013)

  "David Cameron's plan for UK households to block internet porn with default search filters will be “very damaging” for LGBT people and vulnerable adults who could be denied access to legitimate sexual health and education sites, a group of authors and journalists has warned. In an open letter to the Prime Minister, prominent figures including the Belle de Jour writer Brooke Magnanti and feminist blogger and author Zoe Margolis, warned that the Government was taking “a dangerous and misguided approach” to internet safety.[...] They point out that faults with existing internet service provider filters have been reported numerous times and warn that any default filters could “unintentionally block important sites related to sexual health, LGBT issues, or sex and relationship education”. “This will be very damaging for LGBT young people, for example, or vulnerable adults who may be cut off from important support and advice, in particular those with abusive partners who are also the Internet account holder,” they add. [...] To illustrate how blunt an instrument search filters could be, a spokesman for the group cited a recent case in which a British Library search filter denied a man using its Wi-Fi network access to Hamlet, because it contained “violent content”."

Trojan Horse for civil-liberties/privacy infringements

For a rundown of relevant news articles in relation to the UK's Online Safety Bill, see TechCrunch.

As described in our article on censorship, the damaging personal consequences of concerted action against individuals have a chilling effect on public discourse. See, for example, the immediate termination of Tom Flanagan's media and academic career over comments he made concerning the possession of Child Pornography. We do not list such examples in this article, but do cite examples of how broader civil liberties are threatened by hysterical attitudes towards children.

• The EARN IT Act Won't Protect Children, But It Will Destroy Digital Privacy (2020)

  "The first public hearing of the EARN IT Act took place weeks ago, a bill which is nominally designed to require tech companies to meet certain “best practice” requirements when it comes to the safety of children online. If they do so, and as the title of the bill indicates, they will be judged to have “earned” the right to be protected from lawsuits arising from user-generated content. [...] If the bill passes, tech companies will be confronted with a choice: weaken their encryption schemes, or face lawsuits based on the content uploaded by their users. In practice, they will have to weaken encryption, because the flood of litigation stemming from user content will make running such platforms impossibly costly. Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the bill is that, where normally data privacy baffles lawmakers, this attack on data privacy is cleverly hidden in terms of "child protection" and "best practices". In fact, some lawmakers seem to be using their naivety when it comes to the technical aspects of online privacy to deflect criticism. When the Washington Post interviewed one of the bill’s sponsors, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, he claimed that he couldn’t protect users’ rights to encryption because he doesn’t understand it."

• Experts Condemn The UK Online Safety Bill As Harmful To Privacy And Encryption (2022)

  "The British Parliament may start debating the Online Safety Bill again as soon as this week. The bill is a deeply flawed censorship proposal that would allow U.K. residents to be thrown in jail for what they say online. It would also force online service providers to use government-approved software to search for user content that is deemed to be related to terrorism or child abuse. In the process, it will undermine our right to have a private conversation, and the technologies that protect that right, like end-to-end encryption. In a letter published today, EFF has joined dozens of security researchers and human rights groups to send a clear message to incoming U.K. prime minister Rishi Sunak: the Online Safety Bill must not undermine encryption. [...] In the past few years, we’ve seen a number of proposals brought forward by governments that want to scan user-to-user communications for criminal content: the U.S. EARN IT Act, and the EU’s proposal to scan private chats. All of these proposals suffer from the incorrect belief that a backdoor or other workaround to read encrypted messages can be designed for use only in benevolent ways."

• Italian secret internet censorship list, 287 site subset From Wikileaks (2009)

  "This [2009, Italian] list presents 287 internet sites currently censored by Italy. This quasi-voluntary system, which was introduced under the banner of fighting "child pornography" relies on a secret, unaccountable list of site names. Because of this lack of transparency, and the power of the censorship system, the blacklist is of intense interest. (...) The majority of sites on the Italian list seem to be unrelated to child pornography. While some do appear to relate to the images of teenagers, the vast majority of sites are related to what appears to be legal young-adult pornography. Some sites are unrelated to any type of pornography. These include businesses or institutes outside of Italy, and discussion forums, used by tens of thousands for all purposes. While it is possible these sites had an unauthorized user briefly upload an underage image or link to such an image, the continued presence of the sites on this list likely reflects the lack of any censorship notification or appeal mechanism."

Two random, but nevertheless high profile (at the time) minor-attracted community sites were erroneously added to this list - FPC.li and BoyWiki.

• Dan Goodin: Finland censors anti-censorship site, in The Register (2008)

  "Finnish police are blocking more than 1,000 legal websites, including one belonging to a well-known internet activist, under a secretive system designed to prevent access to foreign sites that contain child pornography, according to a group that advocates for individual rights online. [...] Of the 700 or sites that have been tested, only two are known to contain inappropriate images of children, said Tapani Tarvainen chairman of the Electronic Frontier Finland (EFFI). The remainder tend to be sites with adult-oriented themes, such as those offering legal porn, and forums for gay sex. In some cases, the sites - which include an online doll store, a Thai Windows advice forum and a computer repair service - have no visible link to porn or sex at all."

• Punching bags (2008)

  "The police posted information that they would put TPB on the Swedish childporn filter. They never contacted us about the alleged child porn (which nobody found when looking for such content) and after heavy media critique the police caved in and said that TPB did not - any longer - have child porn on the site. Which of course, there was none to start with. Charges was filed about slander and for abusing the childporn filter for political means to JO but he decided that the police probably did their job and ‘had no reason not to trust the police officers testimony’. The police put the TPB associated website Kopimi.com in the child porn filter prior to this. Kopimi.com is of course not child porn either. After over 6 months in the filter a prosecutor stated that kopimi.com of course did not have any child porn (nor had ever had) and demanded that the filter was to be altered. The Swedish police had of course copied it’s filter to Norway and Denmark, aka rendering the site still filtered there after the Swedish filter was altered. It took another 3 months to get that sorted out, all the work we had to do. And no, we didn’t get an apology."

• Brit porn filter censors 13 years of net history (2009)

  "Four weeks after birthing a nationwide Wikipedia edit ban, Britain's child porn blacklist has led at least one ISP to muzzle the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine - an 85 billion page web history dating back to 1996. According to multiple customers of Demon Internet - now owned by Brit telecom Thus - the London-based ISP is blocking access to all sites stored in the archive. When they query the Wayback Machine, hoping to retrieve archived pages, customers are met with generic "not found" error pages. But judging from their urls, these pages are generated by a web filter based on the blacklist compiled by the Internet Watch Foundation, a government-backed organization charged with policing online pornography."

[Editor: This particular example of technical illiteracy spanned from the Virgin Killer controversies]

Draconian punishments

Chat log of Brittany Zamora and the victim whom she was sentenced to 20 years in jail for "raping"

It is easy to locate examples of excessive sentences for regular "molestation", such as Brittany Zamora's 20 years in 2019 for a consensual relationship with a 13 year old male student. Below, we list examples ranging from bizarre "crimes" that never were, to cruel and unusual punishments.

• Balloon fetish child sex offender back behind bars (2024)

  "A notorious sex offender who was banned from possessing orange balloons is back behind bars after admitting breaching a sexual harm prevention order. [...] He was previously jailed for three and a half years in December 2017 and prohibited from possessing orange balloons. Hundreds of photos of girls either holding or blowing-up balloons were found at two properties linked to Hunter in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. Footage showing Hunter appearing to "simulate sex" with an orange balloon was also seized, the court heard. [...] In November 2014, he was given a three-year probation supervision order after admitting visiting Butlins Waterworld in Skegness. There was evidence he had swam with a nine-year-old girl on the rapids under the false name of "David Harley". [...] He was also jailed for 15 months in 2011 and ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years after he broke a court order banning him from possessing balloons in public. He was arrested after police searched his car and found an orange coloured heart-shaped balloon on the front passenger seat."

• Australian Man With Diaper Fetish Gets Banned From Seeing His Children: Report (2022)

  "His ex-wife took legal action against him claiming that his behaviour, which she was previously aware of, had escalated over time. According to the report, the former partner said that the man, who she met in the mid-2000s, even began “wearing the diapers around the home”. The couple then split and agreed to share parenting duties provided the man kept his lifestyle away from his children. But back in 2019, the court had heard that the Aussie father once came to pick the kids up and had a nappy “partially exposed”. It was then, the ex-wife said, that she decided to take legal action against him. In 2021, the court ruled that the man was not allowed to see his children. The father then appealed the decision, saying that he posed no risk to his kids, but his claim was rejected last month. [...] Justice Hannan reportedly said that she has “great reservations” and does not accept that the father has an authentic willingness or capacity to disavow engaging in the behaviours in question and his connections to the community. She further went on to state that it was inevitable that the man's children would be exposed to his fetish, which she claimed would badly affect them. However, now the father has said that he felt he was being discriminated against because of his links to the “adult baby diaper lover community”. The Australian national wrote to the Daily Telegraph describing the decision as “horrendous”. He also added that what he chooses to do in the privacy of his own home without any children present is his own business."

• Cullman County man sentenced to 75 years for failure to register as sex offender (2023)

  "Cullman County Circuit Court Judge Greg Nicholas on Wednesday, May 10, 2023, sentenced David Lee Moore, of Hanceville, to 75 years in prison. The sentence stems from Moore’s March 1 conviction for failing to register as a sex offender with the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office in violation of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. “As I stated after the trial our sex offender registration laws are tough for good reason and we will not only prosecute those who break them to the fullest, but we will also ask for tough sentences on anyone who is convicted,” said Cullman County District Attorney Champ Crocker. Moore was convicted in a one-day trial in March."

• Terlingua Man Sentenced to Prison for Running a Child Obscenity Website (2021)

  "A federal judge today sentenced 65-year-old Thomas Alan Arthur to 40 years in federal prison for operating a website dedicated to publishing writings that detailed the sexual abuse of children. [...] According to trial evidence, Arthur began operating the Mr. Double website in 1996, and began charging members for access to the site in 1998. [...] "This repugnant exploitation of innocent children has no place in society." [...] This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims."

• He was homeless and mentally ill. A judge sentenced him to 150 years. Is that justice? (2023)

  "The question is whether the 32-year-old man diagnosed with schizophrenia — who talked in court about shutting off electricity in Russia with his mind — should spend the rest of his life in prison. Stephens is a former Arizona State University wrestler who became homeless after suffering from untreated schizophrenia for years. In 2016, he walked into a Sweetwater Best Buy and snatched a laptop and other merchandise. When employees confronted him, he pulled out his own laptop, declaring, ”Look, I have child pornography!” He began publicly showing his computer screen, lying down between two sets of sliding doors and perusing the illegal images as customers walked by. [...] Stephens could have gotten those three years, plus required treatment, had he accepted a plea deal from prosecutors on one count of child-porn possession — a charge that seems to fit the crime better, based on what we know. Stephens wasn’t accused of producing or distributing the pornographic material. [...] The state asked asked for a 21-year sentence. Still, that’s not even close to the off-the-charts 150 years handed down by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Veronica Diaz with “a minimum of public explanation,” the Herald reported. Diaz applied the maximum sentence allowed under law."

One punishment involved posting these signs

• Sex Offender Ordered by Judge to Post Signs (2015)

  "Under a judge's order, a man who has admitted molesting a boy has posted signs around his house and a decal on his car proclaiming that he is a sex offender. The hand-painted signs reading "A Sex Offender Lives Here" are posted on all four sides of Leroy Schad's white house in this central Kansas town of only about 150 people. His vehicle has a large decal with bold yellow lettering reading "Sex Offender In This Car." Schad, 72, was originally charged with four counts of taking indecent liberties with a 9-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy in 2005. He was allowed to plead guilty in March 2007 to a lesser charge of aggravated indecent solicitation of a child, and the original charges were dismissed."

• Red signs brand homes of registered sexual predators in Nassau County for Halloween (2015)

  "Large red signs in front of sexual predators' homes are forewarning Nassau County children, parents and the predators on Halloween to beware. Sheriff Bill Leeper said the signs have been erected to warn trick-or-treaters about the locations of 12 registered sexual predators in his county and will be removed after Halloween. Each sign includes the individual predator's name. [...] "I knew it was being done in some other counties and had a suggestion from some residents to consider and thought it was a good idea, especially before Halloween," Leeper said. Posting warning signs outside registered sexual predators' homes in Florida isn't unusual. In April 2013, the Bradford County Sheriff's Office installed 18 red warning signs with each person's name. In early 2014, Port Orange investigated use of similar signs after Perry city officials installed them, according to the New York Daily News."

• Court rules that 32-year-old man's sex with 17-year-old was legal... but pictures of it were not (2012)

  "Although a man who was 32 wasn't breaking the law by having sex with a 17-year-old girl in 2008, he was by photographing the act, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday. Marshall Hollins was convicted in Stephenson County of making child pornography and sentenced to 8 years in prison. He admitted he had sex with the girl when she was 17, which is the age of sexual consent in Illinois.."

• Insatiable Wife (Teacher) Sent to Jail for Group Sex (2012)

  "This weekend, Fort Worth, Texas high school teacher Brittni Colleps was sentenced to five years in prison after conviction of having sex with five of her male students. The students were all over the age of eighteen, and consented to the acts. But, Brittni and her husband were swingers, and salacious videos of the sex were made, and viewed by the jury."

• Associated Press: "Toe-sucker gets life" (2003)

  "The former supervisor of an American youth program was sentenced Friday to life in prison on 25 counts of lewd conduct and assault for sucking the toes of 20 boys. Trenton Veches, 32, will be eligible for parole in 15 years."

• Kilpatrick, James. "Can someone be convicted for mere possession of porn materials" (2005)

  "In June 2002, Phoenix police arrested [Morton R.] Berger on a state warrant charging him with sexual exploitation of a minor. Specifically, he was charged with possession of 20 photographs depicting, among other things, children being raped by adults, children engaging in sexual acts with other children, and children in sexual acts with animals. The 20 images introduced at trial were part of a large collection of pornographic images accumulated over a period of at least six years. A jury found Berger guilty on 20 counts of sexually exploiting children under the age of 15 and sentenced him to 10 years on each count, the sentences to run consecutively. Last May the Arizona Supreme Court affirmed that judgment. [...] There is no evidence that he himself ever engaged in distributing, exhibiting, receiving, selling, purchasing, electronically transmitting or even "exchanging" pornographic images, all of which the Arizona law forbids. He was convicted solely of "possessing" such images. He collected them. These facts should weigh in your calculus, for good or ill: He is 52 years old, married, a father of four, an award-winning teacher of world history. He has no criminal record of any sort. The state offered no evidence that he has ever created pornography or improperly touched a minor."

• Six years for touching buttocks (2006)

  "A former elementary school teacher was sentenced to six years in state prison for touching the buttocks of a 10-year-old girl. [...] He must register as a sex offender and cannot teach again."

Such "name and shame" signs have become common across the states

• Man sentenced for lewd acts on boy (2008)

  "A 61-year-old man has been sentenced to six years in a state prison for kissing an 11-year-old boy on the lips in the Joshua Hills Elementary school cafeteria, court officials said."

• Man grabs girl's arm - now he's a sex offender (2005)

  "A man who grabbed a 14-year-old girl's arm to chastise her after she walked in front of his car, causing him to swerve to avoid hitting her, must register as a "sex offender," the Appellate Court of Illinois has ruled. Fitzroy Barnaby, a 28-year-old Evanston, Illinois, man was prosecuted for attempted kidnapping and child abduction charges following a November 2002 incident in which he nearly hit the teen with his vehicle. The girl testified Barnaby yelled, "Come here, little girl," when he jumped out of his car and grabbed her arm. She broke away and called authorities. Barnaby says he was merely trying to lecture her for her carelessness. The trial jury accepted Barnaby's version of the story, but found him guilty of unlawful restraint of a minor – a sex offense under Illinois law."

• Perverted Justice. Sex offender laws represent the triumph of outrage over reason. (2011) copy

  "For example, "the minimum sentence for possession of an image of child pornography is longer than the presumptive sentence for rape or aggravated assault. A presumptive sentence for possession of two images of child pornography…is harsher than the sentences for second degree murder or sexual assault of a child under twelve….For molesting a child, one might receive the same sentence that Berger has received for possessing one picture.""

Charging, Punishment and Imprisonment of "victims"

• New Ohio bill would require porn websites to verify users’ ages, criminalize underage access (2023)

  "New bipartisan legislation in the Ohio House would require pornography websites to verify that users are adults, make it a crime for minors to lie about their age to access such sites [...] Ohioans younger than 18 who access adult websites using fake ID information could be charged with a fourth-degree misdemeanor, which could bring up to 30 days in jail and a $250 fine. [...] Demetriou said in an interview that he introduced the bill because many studies indicate that adolescents who watch pornography can suffer from “serious mental-health issues” as a result. “I want to protect my family and I want to protect every family in Ohio,” said Demetriou, the father of two young boys. “This is common-sense legislation that creates common sense barriers for kids to access this harmful material.”"

• Police suggested charging a child for her explicit photos. Experts say the practice is common (2023)

  "But instead of treating the girl as a crime victim, an officer seemingly threatened to charge her under a law most people view as designed to protect child victims. The shocking interaction was recorded last week on body camera audio and by the father’s doorbell camera in Columbus, Ohio. The footage drew criticism from the public and from experts who said law enforcement officials have long misused laws meant to protect children by threatening to charge them with being part of the same crime. [...] “These laws were really intended to prevent sexual abuse of children, to protect against the exploitation of children,” Shah said. “So weaponizing these laws against children to bring charges against them really misunderstands the law, and even worse, is flouting the law’s purpose.” It’s hard to know how many children are charged, partly because prosecutors can use the charges to elicit guilty pleas to lesser offenses, she said."

• Incredible case in Vienna: A young person traded illegal porn on the Darknet on a large scale. The judgment is already final (Translation) (2023)

  "A 16-year-old boy had traded pornographic material from abused children on the dark web on a large scale and in a highly professional manner. [...] The grounds for the judgment showed that between 2021 - he was 14 at the time - and the summer of 2022, he had procured a total of 2,100 prohibited files, saved them and then offered them to interested parties on a marketplace on the Darknet. The boy handled the sales in a highly professional manner, for example by using online chats or producing snippets of relevant videos that were available as so-called teasers. He also made screenshots with price lists and offered "proof" that the offered material actually existed. [...] In addition, the 16-year-old was instructed to start and regularly provide evidence of psychotherapy and probation was ordered. The court also assumed that the boy had earned at least 6,000 euros with the traded child abuse depictions - he has to repay this amount."

• "The Hysteria Over Child Pornography and Paedophilia," Paidika, 2, 13-34. (1987)

  "The case of "Amy", a 12-year-old girl from California, is one blatant example of this institutional abuse. Amy's family sought counseling in California after Amy and her stepfather revealed to the mother that he had fondled her on several occasions. The family therapist they consulted reported the incident, as required under California law, to the police, who filed felony child abuse charges against the stepfather. The stepfather pled not guilty when he was charged, and the girl refused to testify against him. Frustrated by Amy's will not to testify, child protection workers placed Amy in solitary confinement in a juvenile prison. For 9 days, she was confined to a four-by-eight foot room with only a bed and lamp, and for a few days, a television set. When the judge in the case saw that Amy's resolve not to testify could not be broken, the case was dismissed. [...] A more recent case in Massachusetts involves two youths, ages 14 and 15, who were confined in various locked facilities for at least a five month period--part of the time in Federal facilities--as "material witnesses" in the case of a Boston-area man with whom they had lived, who is accused of Mann Act violations, after they attempted to recant all or part of previous statements they had made concerning the man."

• Trexler, Phil. "Summit judge jails 14-year-old," The Beacon Journal. (2006)

  "A judge has jailed a 14-year-old girl who ran away rather than testify against a man accused of molesting her. The Norton Middle School student is being held indefinitely in an isolated area of the Summit County Jail on the orders of Common Pleas Judge James Murphy. The teen, jailed since Wednesday, insists she is not a sex abuse victim and is demanding a lawyer be assigned to represent her, court records show. However, jail officials said Monday she cannot speak with anyone without permission from county prosecutors. Prosecutors say the teen is a material witness and is being held in jail for her own protection. But lawyers for defendant Galo Sanchez-Pesantes contend the state -- with approval from the girl's mother-- has "effectively kidnapped" the teen, holding her in an adult jail while denying her access to an attorney in an effort to force her testimony. [...] Sanchez-Pesantes is accused of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor stemming from a Jan. 20 incident in which the boyfriend of the girl's mother allegedly saw the two on a couch. The girl denied having sex and refused to write a statement for police, defense attorneys said. "She said no, nothing happened with (Sanchez-Pesantes) and she said she told that to everyone, but no one wanted to listen," Brouse said Monday."

• McCarthy, Rebecca. "Jailed Teen Again Refuses To Testify Against Father," Atlanta Constitution, 14 October (1988)

  "An 18-year-old Lilburn woman refused for a second time Thursday to testify in her father's child molestation trial and remained in jail on a contempt of court charge. Bond was set at $100,000. Deidre Lee Dickey was jailed Wednesday after refusing to testify against Ed R. Dickey, who is on trial on charges of sexual abuse against Miss Dickey and her two younger sisters. Superior Court Judge Bryant Huff called Miss Dickey back into court Thursday and asked if she was willing to testify, told her the consequences of not doing so and listened as she again refused to cooperate. "My understanding is that when the children realized what the position of the state was, they didn't want to testify," said defense attorney Calvin J. Leipold Jr. "I think it's one thing for children to ask for help and another for them to find themselves in a position like the ones these children are in." A prosecutor said he will recall Miss Dickey again Friday. "The court's order is that she testify, and when she refused she was held to be in willful contempt," prosecuting attorney Donald Johnstono said Thursday. "We'll be back again tomorrow." Miss Dickey's mother, Peggy Dickey, said in an interview Thursday that her daughters believe the state does not care about them or their family and decided not to let prosecutors "pressure them" into testifying. Another of Mrs. Dickey's daughters, age 16, collapsed on the stand Wednesday and could not testify, either. Mrs. Dickey said she believes the charges against her husband are untrue. The accusations were brought to the attention of prosecutors by the Dickeys' extended family."

Weaponized Stigma

Signs posted by debt collectors in Russia

• "Adults interrupt track meet to accuse 9-year-old girl of being transgender, parents say (2024)

  ""She went up to compete for the grade four shot put final, and right before she went to throw, a grandfather of a student said ‘hey, this is supposed to be a girls’ event, and why are you letting boys compete?’” the girl’s mom told the outlet. “My daughter is cisgender…uses she/her pronouns. She has a pixie haircut.” The girl’s mom says the man then demanded she prove her daughter’s sex, pointed at another girl with short hair and accused her of being trans before his wife called the girl’s mother “a genital mutilator, a groomer, and a pedophile,” the outlet reported."

• Tibetan girl forced to say that the Dalai Lama is a Pedophile (2023)

  Editors: The incident spread throughout social media after the Dalai Lama's controversial "suck my tongue" comment. Video attached. Backup on Twitter.

• "They've sent leaflets to my relatives that I am a pedophile and a drug dealer": Collectors have harassed the debtor because of a loan of three thousand rubles (2023)

  [Translation] "In an interview with a NGS.RU journalist the man said that he contacted Microcredit Organization "Zaymych" in 2022. First, he borrowed 3 thousand rubles online, paid off on time. In June, I issued a micro-loan for another 3 thousand rubles, but eh could not repay it on time because he lost his job. At first, the company's representatives would phone Peter day and night, demanding to repay the debt, taking into account interest: in a short time, the debt increased from 3 thousand rubles to 13 thousand. The relevant information appeared in the personal account. The resident of Novosibirsk did not agree with the requirements, in conversations he operated with knowledge of Russian legislation. According to the Federal Law "On Microfinance Organizations", in case of delay and accrual of interest, the amount of debt cannot grow more than 1.5 times from the initial loan. After that, he began receiving threatening messages. [...] At the next stage, unknown people began to terrorize the man's relatives. They were informed that leaflets had allegedly been hung around the district with warnings that he "shows an unhealthy interest in children" and "is suspected of distributing drugs." Finally, the actions of collectors were felt by the residents in the apartment next door. They received a letter allegedly from Peter himself, in which he demands to pay the debt for him, otherwise he would "burn several cars, fill all the doors with glue," etc. The letter says that the man took the money for sex reassignment surgery, which was followed by treatment in a psychiatric hospital. At the same time, the author profusely uses obscene language discrediting the Novosibirsk resident."

Internal contradictions

"Condoms for Boys" hysteria in the UK and America is one example of how heavy-handed adoption of safeguarding has been unsuccessful

Often, we see that countries who have pursued the prohibitionist scheme on sex with minors have not reaped the rewards one might expect from such initiatives. This is painfully obvious in the example of adolescent pregnancy, with the more puritanical nations (US, UK and Australia) routinely reporting much higher rates than those who have been less zealous in their pursuit of protectionist initiatives towards girls (Scandinavia, and most of Europe).

See also

• Sex Panic and the Punitive State by Roger N. Lancaster