I'll be weighing in on other issues over the next few days, but I had to write about this:
Abuse ruins life of girl, 7
OSHAWA -- An Oshawa trucker was sentenced to 17 months in jail yesterday for ruining a young girl's life with "despicable" sexual abuse.
Raymond Pike, 57, was convicted at an earlier trial of two counts of sexual interference and one count of sexual assault on a girl who was 7 years old when the crimes were committed from January 2002 to January 2003. (. . .) At the conclusion of the jail time, Raymond Pike will spend three years on probation, during which time he will receive behavioural counselling.
Seventeen months -- actually, 11 months, ten days -- because offenders automatically serve just two-thirds of their sentences before release. This creep will be out on the street in less than a year for crimes that will stay with that girl for the rest of her life --- how is this justice?
This sentence sends a message to all the perverts out there -- abuse children with impunity because the criminal justice system (read - society) doesn't consider it a serious offence. It obviously isn't serious enough to warrant a penitentiary term, nor is it worthy of dangerous offender status -- in fact, he will serve less time than the time period of the abuse (one year) -- that must sound like a good deal to all those sickos out there.
And this happens to be the only time he's been caught -- how many other children might there be, violated by this creature, but undiscovered by the authorities. There could be many others; pervs are much like drunk drivers -- they are rarely caught the first time.
A sentence like this says that the government/judiciary is unwilling to meaningfully punish those who threaten the safety and security of our children -- one can only assume this is because they don't consider the sexual abuse of children a significant transgression.
There is no deterrent value, no punitive value and no preventive value to such a feeble sentence --- The consistently tepid sentences meted out for such malignant acts serve as an invitation, or as supplication, to all the paedophiles out there.
canadianna
39 comments:
Considering that child molesters are absolutely INCURABLE, it is sickening to think we keep letting them out on the street. If there is one certainty, it is this: THEY WILL DO IT AGAIN.
It's like having a male dog that isn't neutered, and expecting to teach that dog not to chase after female dogs in heat. It would be absurd to even try it. Yet we expect that with counselling and special monitoring, we can keep child molesters from re-offending when they get out. What utter delusions our justice system works under!
C,
Welcome back! You've been missed.
I think we should do something radical to these idiotic judges.
What an absolutely disturbing story. Thanks for posting it, I hadn't seen anything on it yet.
CA
I can't understand why he hasn't been placed on a sex offender's register.
One would thought that would have been routine in a case like this.
RR-- You are absolutely right. Too bad our government is not willing to accept and act on this.
Thanks for the welcome Bob.
Rebecca -- this was a small piece in the SUN, and there have been many others, very similar over the past few years. If you go to the link, you'll see this guy's son (a teacher) is up on 'unrelated' child porn charges. You have to wonder what he'll get -- if his dad only got 17 months for actually sexually assaulting a child, how much time will this perv get for downloading pictures? Not much based on other recent cases.
G-gnome -- I believe it is automatic that they go on a sex-offender registry, but personally, I think those registries are nothing but pacifiers for the community. They give a false sense of security, but they do nothing to protect or prevent a paedophile or other sexual preditor from re-offending.
Sexual deviants are less likely to be rehabilitated than any other criminal group. Keeping track of the pervs might help after the fact. That is not enough.
In Canada, we have what's called 'Dangerous Offender' status which is used to incarcerate and keep tabs on the worst of the worst and repeat offenders. This designation should be used for any person convicted of a sex crime against a child, whether its actual rape, or 'only' viewing child porn.
This is a sad and angry story.
I suspect there will be more like them. There seems to be a growing number within the population that frighteningly believes that this is not a very big issue. That children are just 'little adults' and they do not care whether or not they are sexualized early. This attitude then leads to stories like this where cases of horrific abuse are just sloughed off.
There is a real slippery slope of morality currently encroaching upon the west and Canada seems to be heading the pack. I recall a survey taken by INTERPOL last year around this time that said Canada was now one of the leading nations in the world for distribution of child pornography because our laws are so lax on it. I'll try to find it so I can be more accurate
This should terrify many but sadly, even if you tell people...they don't believe you.
With any luck, maybe someone in the prison will help... errr, cure Mr. Pike of his perversion.
Preferably with a dull spoon or a barbell.
I vote barbell - welcome back C :D
It's a pretty sad state of affairs when we have to hope that the incarcerated will dish out the justice that our so-called "justice" department can't find the will to do.
Welcome back, C
My inclinations are more along the lines of RR. Why do we let sexual offenders back on the street when there is ample evidence to suggest that they are unable to be rehabilitated?
Welcome back. As stated before, you have been missed. Our justice(?) system seems to only work for the person who committed the crime, not the victim(s). You do have to wonder how many more young people out there who have been victimized by this pervert.
Welcome back.
The sentence is disgusting. I think judges ought to have to take these perverts into their own homes for a two year period right after their jail time expires.
Unless, of course, the judge has kids. I wouldn't put them at risk for the sins of their judicial parents.
Welcome back C...missed ya.
This is just another symptom of the disease known as fuzzy-wuzzy socialism in this country.Today in Edmonton,a pre-sentencing trial was held for a woman found guilty of manslaughter.Even her liar..errr..lawyer admitted that she had previous assault charges and solved her problems by grabbing the nearest object and beating someone with it. This time,that object,a knife,killed her boyfriend.Her liar wants a sentence of 4 years.The disgusting part is that the Crown prosecutor only wants 8 years!! Any bets the wussy judge gives her less then 2,citing her Aboriginal descent and "horrid" childhood??
Welcome back. All together now, "What is the definition of insanity"? "Why, its doing the same thing over and over again, and each time expecting different results"!
Of course this poor sick person will be cured by counseling and special monitoring. Even though no one else has been. Of course he won't do this again. Even though all the others did. Of course the judicial system is not crazy. We are merely humane.
When the law no longer protects your children, it is time to protect them yourself.
Canadianna: I instruct teachers in assisting children and parents in keep themselves safe, but for little children it is impossible to safety proof them... only their parents can keep them safe. Here are some stats that may surprise your readers:
- 90% of sexual assaults of children involve an acquaintance of the victim.
- It is estimated that only 16% of sexual assaults are ever reported.
- 15% of sexual assault victims are under 12 years of age.
- One third of known sexual assault offenders are under age 21.
- Males comprise 90% of all known child abusers.
- Males comprise 97% of all known sexual assault offenders.
- Convicted pedophiles average about 52 victims each.
- Convicted pedophiles of boys average about 150 victims each.
I have ahard time understanding where so many Canadians get this smug sense of superiority as compared to certain other countries.
Canada is a country that tells the people who rape kids that they'll get a hug instead of serious jailtime for their crimes And when they do finally show up in jail, it's club fed country club.
Canada is a disgrace on the world stage for this. Until our disgraceful sentencing laws are corrected, I think folks who want to back pack accross europe should sew "Canada: perverts and criminals welcome" on thei back packs instead of a maple leaf...
Indeed, welcome back!
When Pike's released and does it again, government officials will express sadness, perplexity and indignation. In the meantime, we'll have more and more federally-sponsored sociological studies to convince us about how the perpetrators are themselves victims, and how we are all responsible for such unchecked appetites.
Sean -- you make very good arguments -- the one thing we'll have to disagree on is the 'curability' of paedophiles. Whether it's a mental illness or an abusive childhood -- I don't care. Treatment has been proven not to work with sex-offenders, regardless of their prediliction.
You would like to keep people in custody until they are no longer a threat -- where is the certainty? How much treatment does it take? Can some people fake cures? There is no certainty.
Although in many situations, I do believe people deserve a second chance, and some might even genuinely want to be 'cured'. That said, I also believe that the best indicator of future behaviour is always past behaviour. Most of of never really change -- we might for a while, but then we fall back to what is comfortable.
Personally, I'm not willing to risk the safety of children, in order to ensure the rights of 'cured' paedophiles.
I can live with withholding rights from offenders. Better they suffer for their past mistakes, than children suffer for our hope of the good in all humanity.
"The good in all humanity!" To be blunt... there is no such thing... I've lived long enough with my eyes open wide enough to know that that is not the case. For instance, 1 in 25 people are clinically sociopaths... so much for the good in humanity. It's no more than a huggy wish based on nothing.
Hmmm... I re-read my last post; and it sounds more overstated than I wished it to be, so I'll clarify. There is good in humanity, but not in all of humanity, and trusting that there is good in all of humanity simply creates victims. How's that?
There is a sickening, evil trend at work here - the 'sexual liberation' isn't over folks...
As usual, World Net Daily is utterly incapable of accurate reporting. From WND's blurb:
A new book published by Haworth Press features multiple Ph.D. "experts" claiming that sex with children "can benefit" boys and even serve a "mentoring function."
From their own citation's first line:
Pederasty, or sexual relations between men and adolescent boys...
They are so hysterical they didn't even read the quote they posted. Once again, WND's pathetic journalism shines through.
Sex with teenagers is not pedophilia.
Mike,
So... semantics aside, what's your view on pederasty? When my children reach 13, they will not cease to be children - 'adolescence' is merely a technical term used to denote a stage in children's growth, and 'pederasty' denotes the sexual abuse of said adolescents... But of course you know that - I take it that your issue is with WND and not the review (technical errors aside) itself?
Mike, your attitude is worrysome.
Why is it people kept screaming that the priests in the US Catholic church sex-scandal were paedophiles? (Most victims were between the ages of 12 and 15-- adolescents) I guess that's so it wouldn't come down to the truth . . . they were homosexual paedophiles and their homosexuality played a big role in their choice of partners.
These priests were definitely paedophiles. How many of those boys were sixteen, seventeen, eighteen? Canada notwithstanding, the age of consent is 15 or 16 in most places. That makes 'adolescent boys' minor children.
And Mike, with some paedophiles, it's not the immature body that gets them going, it's the inexperience combined with the developing body.
Call it what you like Mike but your hair-splitting seems to be an attempt to defend the indefensible.
It isn't semantics, it is about defining a word and not letting a tabloid rag smear a potentially legitimate researcher.
Yes, you are basically right, Linda. WND is a tabloid rag; you might as well quote the National Enquirer. WND specializes in "technical errors," as you call them - and these technical errors always seem to be calculated to produce outrage in the reader.
Sex with adolescents is not the same thing as sex with children; paedophilie is inescapably exploitative and destructive. The nature of sex between an adult and a teenager is far less clear cut; our society artificially extends childhood until the "age of consent."
Which is not to say that the artificial extension is not a good thing; adolescents do not recieve adult privileges, and so they should not be saddled with adult responsibilities. The age of consent is a good law, but it is aimed at the lowest common denominator.
I'm with Canadianna. I agree that the state as it stands today doesn't really try to deter the sexual abuse of children.
I cannot understand why "liberals", who're supposed to care about everyone, seem to care more about the fully-grown, guilty-as-sin abusers than they do about innocent, fragile children.
Why won't the Liberal gov't move aggressively to protect children via the very harsh punishment (long prison sentences) of sexual predators? Why did they instead pull out all the stops to force SSM upon the nation? Talk about bizarre priorities. The Liberals are, for this and many, many more important reasons, completely unfit to take care of Canada and Canadians as they obviously only care about some and not others in the way described above.
The Liberals have all the power to fix and make right this abomination of social justice, yet care not a whit. Therefore they must be removed, and quickly.
The critical thing in such matters, as some commenters have mentioned, is that people who have become sexually fixated on children can almost never be diverted to other sexual outlets. I doubt if even castration would be effective (amusing though it might be to some elements of society).
Liberals don't want to kill people or lock them up forever for one offense. Conservatives don't want to pay for lifetime incarceration. I guess that leaves registration and monitoring, and hoping for the best.
As for those who gloat over the horrors which a convicted pedophile will endure in prison, I have just one little annoying question: how many of the people doing time for sexual offenses against children are innocent?
Kind of helps put all those annoying rights-of-the-accused in perspective, doesn't it?
misterniceguy: "As for those who gloat over the horrors which a convicted pedophile will endure in prison, I have just one little annoying question: how many of the people doing time for sexual offenses against children are innocent?"
As sexual assault is one of the most under-reported crimes, whether against a child, an adolescent or an adult, I'm willing to put my money on "few to none."
I'm with you--I used to annoy some of my friends on the Left on the subject of jail. I'll oppose capital punishment to the death, as it were, but I don't really believe in the notion of rehabilitation for violent criminals of the type referenced here.
But comfort yourself with this: at least he got a few months in jail. Here are a couple of cases that make me pretty sick:
http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/toronto/story.html?id=a90ea502-133a-4ed6-bc2e-a2773049d442
http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/editorial/story.html?id=bab46a12-0b78-4629-9e8d-75cef53864e3
Welcome back, btw. And you have to like that Debris Trail guy; he's that rarity, a right-winger with second thoughts. :)
Canada's age of consent laws are terrible. We should join most of the civilised world in moving them to at least 16 (with proximate age provisions/exceptions). The UK, New Zealand, Australia, US, and most other countries have long since adopted this one or higher.
Once again, "O Canada -- perverts welcome..."
sick.
I don't know, but I doubt putting them in the 'general population' would matter like it once did. It's just a guess, but I think the days of 'honour among inmates' is long gone. Many average citizens barely care about this sort of thing. I find it unlikely that those in the prison system would be so outraged as to punish a sex-offender.
"I find it unlikely that those in the prison system would be so outraged as to punish a sex-offender."
On the contrary, they're dead meat. I have this from COs with whom I once spent a good deal of time (no pun intended--this was purely professional!).
Dr. Dawg -- I'm truly surprised, but somewhat heartened that even criminals find some things vile enough to react that way.
Liam O'Brien mentioned the raising of the age of consent from the current 14 to 16.
I have just put up a post on that very topic on The Canadian Sentinel. My view on the issue can be seen there:
http://thecanadiansentinel.blogspot.com/2005/09/do-leftists-want-adults-to-have-sex.html
I'm glad to see you're back, Canadianna. Your blog is excellent, the posts focussed and very worthy of intense discussion within the comments area. Keep it up.
And, Dawg, I'm pleased to see you're thinking for yourself rather than letting the left tell you what's what. You're all right.
Ewww... Blogger 1272 must be a lefty.
Time to turn on word verification, Canadianna, to prevent automated comment spam.
Thanks Canadian Sentinel, I've deleted the comment.
My pleasure to help, Canadianna. See, I "stood on guard for thee"... just as promised on my site.
Speaking of which, this morning there was a very-little-reported-by-the-MSM "terrorist act" at Georgia Tech University and I've done a post on it:
http://thecanadiansentinel.blogspot.com/2005/10/terrorist-act-at-georgia-tech-bombs.html
Lately it's been almost exclusively reported by non-MSM media, namely the blognet. That includes The Canadian Sentinel.
I am just in the process of reading all I can about this "family"..his son is still waiting sentencing and it is one year since his arrest. Our fmaily has been directly touched by this and it sickens me to think that he will be out of jail before my son is out of high school. Is there a blog anywhere about his son, Jeremy? The old saying, like father like son surely rings true here.
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