5 replies to this topic

[Kelly]

http://winnipegsun.c...363674-sun.html

Pedophile prowled for children 20 years

By CP  7/24/07

REGINA -- For nearly 20 years, Peter Whitmore has been hunting children across Canada and forcing them to satisfy his sexual desires.

To say that he was a predator well-known to police when he embarked on his last expedition, to the Prairies last summer, would be an understatement. His victims numbered over a dozen. He'd been jailed repeatedly and, time after time, was assessed as a high risk to reoffend.

Sometimes he'd attack a child just days after being released. Invariably, prison psychologists characterized him as a manipulative liar, unwilling to admit that he'd ever harmed anyone.

The sordid history was laid out yesterday in Court of Queen's Bench as Whitmore was sentenced to life in prison for his latest crimes -- kidnapping and sexually assaulting a Manitoba teenager and a 10-year-old Saskatchewan boy.

Documents suggest his life of crime began in 1988, when Whitmore himself was only 18. The attacks began in Toronto in 1989, when he began luring boys with money or the pretence of a job or a delivery errand.

For his sex crimes against five boys, aged 11 to 13, he was sentenced to 16 months in addition to six months' time served, and three years probation.

ON THE PROWL AGAIN

He was released on July 29, 1994, after serving two-thirds of his sentence, with strict orders to avoid contact with children under 14.

Within nine days, he was on the prowl again, this time in Guelph, Ont., where he posed as a worker in child protective services and managed to trick a mother into turning over her eight-year-old girl. He took her to Toronto, where he forced her to perform sexual acts on him before sending her home in a taxi.

Another victim was a boy, 9, who lived next door to Whitmore in Keswick, Ont., and was talked into a sleepover.

Even his cellmate at Millhaven Institution, near Kingston, Ont., was disturbed by some of Whitmore's behaviour.

"I know he needs help," reported the inmate.

"He would stand six inches from TV and stare at kids. He would even touch the screen where the kid's private parts were."

Whitmore gets life

Court told of victims' hellish ordeal

REGINA -- It began with a friendship struck up among co-workers at a Winnipeg construction site.

It was July 21, 2006, and Peter Whitmore needed a place to stay. A workmate was won over easily by the lumbering, oafish man, and offered up space in his family's home.

His common-law wife wasn't such an easy sell. She was wary of the stranger, especially when he offered to take her 14-year-old son camping to "get him away from the bad influences."

In the coming days, Whitmore coaxed the co-worker and the teen to travel with him to Regina to buy a new vehicle. If they did, Whitmore said, they could have the old beat-up van he was driving.

About halfway there, in Brandon, Whitmore said a bag had been left behind in Winnipeg with $2,000 in it. The van wasn't working right either, and Whitmore convinced his co-worker to take the bus back to the Manitoba capital to get the money. Whitmore and the teen would have the van fixed in Brandon.

The co-worker returned home to find there was no money. In the meantime, Whitmore had taken off with the teen. In the days ahead, they would pick up an even younger Saskatchewan boy. The chase was on.

Whitmore, an "unrelenting" pedophile, pleaded guilty yesterday to abduction and sex assault charges and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance at parole for seven years. The plea was part of a deal the Crown brokered in exchange for not pursuing dangerous offender status.

Court heard all the details of Whitmore's latest crimes.

He wasted no time corrupting his first victim. They drove to Moose Mountain Provincial Park in southeastern Saskatchewan, where Whitmore showed the teen a video on a portable DVD player of men having sex with boys.

GAVE WAY TO FEAR

The teen resisted Whitmore's advances at first, but that resistance gave way to fear as his captor became angry, so the teen acquiesced.

Whitmore kept his victim compliant with threats that he had military weapons in the van. He told the teen he could make one phone call to people he knew and the youngster's family would be killed.

The sexual assaults continued -- "lots" was the only estimate the teen gave police.

"I don't trust anyone I don't know," the teen wrote in his statement to the court. "I just wish none of this ever happened ... Then I would still be me."

On July 23, Whitmore and the boy approached a house just outside a small Saskatchewan town trying unsucessfully to sell a DVD player to a woman for gas money.

In the days that followed, Whitmore hatched a plan to snatch her 10-year-old son. On July 30, Whitmore got the teen to lure the boy away from his home on a bike ride to a nearby "haunted house," which turned out to be another abandoned farm building. When the youngsters arrived, he pounced.

Whitmore ended up keeping the boy and the teen at the there for two hellish days.

By the second day, an Amber Alert had been issued for the younger boy. A neighbour noticed fresh tracks and called the RCMP.

The 10-year-old came out when officers showed up. Whitmore stayed inside with the teen, who was too scared to leave, and a 10-hour standoff ensued. On Aug. 1, police talked him out and into custody.

These are the Victim Impact Statements given by family members:

-The 10-year-old Saskatchewan victim (as told to victim services worker):

I don’t remember a lot about what happened. I don’t want to remember. I was scared and mad when he stole me — when he took me away from my family. I was scared. I did not feel safe. I did not know what was going on. I was scared that he would kill me. When he took me I was quiet and confused.  I was mad and afraid he was going to hurt me. I was unable to sleep when I was away. I was worried about dying.

My room at home looks much like the room I was kept in. This made me feel I was uncomfortable. I slept downstairs until I got the new futon in my room. My pet mice keep me company in my room. They make me feel more comfortable so I am sleeping in my room again.

I did not do as well at school this year. Most of the kids at school are good, but want to know what happened. Every time there is something in the media, the kids at school start to ask questions again and I do not feel that great. There is a bully at school that calls me names. My Mom is going to home-school me next year.

Sometimes what happened is on my mind. I am trying to forget what happened. I have a counsellor. She is helping me. I can talk to her. I wrote a story for her about what happened to me. It is three pages long.

I feel kinda safe now unless it storms. I had to take this really gross medicine. I am not sure what the medicine is for. Medicine is from a doctor in Regina. I was mad when he stole me. I was mad at (the 14-year-old Winnipeg victim) because he tricked me. I thought he was my friend, but he wasn’t.

We went on a bike ride to the neighbours and that’s when he took he me. I was not given much food, just crackers and water and dog food stuff one day. I just about threw up. My tummy felt upset, like there were frogs in my tummy. I felt pretty shaky while I was gone.

When I came home I felt kinda better because I wasn’t alone. I felt kinda safe with my family. I felt relieved because the police had got him. I did not have to look at him all the time.

I feel kinda good now. If I have to go to court it makes me feel good and bad. I want to see him sentenced for life. I feel nervous about going to court.

My family is different now. My Mom does not want me to go out by myself anymore. He threatened to take (his younger sister) if I tried to run away

I had marks on my leg. I told my sisters that I had fallen in a gopher hole. The truth is that I was chained to the bed. I did not feel good. I had to pee in a bucket. I heard sounds at night. There were mice in the walls. I like mice so I shared my food with the mice.


— The 14-year-old Winnipeg victim:

In the past year I’ve been feeling afraid and always looking over my shoulder. I don’t trust anyone I don’t know. And I don’t like going outside alone. I’m always home or at my friend’s.

The past year has been really hard. When I first got back I couldn’t sleep, I was having nightmares. And I would cry inside every time I thought about it or I would wait till there was no one around.

Ever since I’ve been back I sleep in the living room. I don’t know why but I feel really safe in the living room. Anytime I leave this city I feel like I’m going there again. I wish none of this ever happened then I would still be me.


— Mother of the Saskatchewan victim:

There are also issues at school with the kids picking on our children because of what happened. There is one particular bully who calls (her son) “faggot” to his face all the time. We are withdrawing our children from school this coming year and will be home-schooling. Our family needs more time to heal without all the negative impact from school.

We had taken (her son) off Ritalin in the spring before the abduction. We had to put him back on it at school so that he could settle down in school. We had to put him on sleeping pills for a while at night because he was afraid to go to sleep at night. (Her son) would struggle to get out of bed in the morning because sleep was a safe place. He had nightmares for quite a while and still wakes several times each night. We had to take his bed out of his room because he was afraid to sleep on a bed and it brought back too many memories. We had to put a futon couch in his bedroom so that he was able to get some rest.

(Her son) doesn’t like to ride his bike anymore and has only left the yard once on his bike in the last year. He is easily scared when he encounters confrontations of any kind, i.e. fighting with his sisters, or violence on TV.

(Her son) was tested for AIDS and other communicable diseases. This was very stressful for us, knowing that our little boy may have been infected with a disease like AIDS. The waiting was unbearable and we waited for test results from Peter Whitmore and (the Winnipeg victim).

We have been a family in crisis. So much has happened and we need to just put it to rest. We don’t understand the criminal justice system and have been very frustrated with the delays. Neither (her husband) or I have heard the whole story yet of (their son’s) abduction. He has just finished it with his counsellor, but I do not know the details. I don’t want to know, but I have to know.

I feel that we need to get past the trial stage so that we can deal with it one more time and then put it to rest. We need to heal and carry on with our lives. I don’t know what long term effects this will have on (her son). Hopefully with continued counselling he will have a bright future, grow up to be a loving husband and father. I pray this makes him a stronger person.


— Mother of the Winnipeg victim:

Not knowing if I would ever see my son again, or if I did would he still be alive was unbearable. Eating and sleeping did not exist during the days my son was missing. All I did was cry, pace the floor and always have the phone close to me.

My son has been terrified to sleep by himself for months after the incident and still continues to sleep in the living room. I would often sit and watch my son sleep to help him feel secure, and sometimes I would hear him whispering and stirring.

I have experienced nightmares that have kept me awake at night. In the last year I have also experienced depression and panic attacks.

My son has had emotional breakdowns where he would cry and say things like “I’m worthless, my life sucks.”  All I could do was hold him and tell him he was not worthless. Since this has happened there is not a night that goes by that I don’t check on him at least twice through the night.

My son will never be the same. Maybe he will learn to cope and find a place to carry it within himself through his therapy, but he will carry the memories every single day of his life.

My son did not deserve for these horrible things to happen to him, but as horrible as it is all we can do is stick together as a family and pray that he will come through this and be able to live a normal life.


— Father of the Saskatchewan victim:

My wife phoned me at work and said (their son) is missing and that she found the bikes in (a neighbour’s) car garage, that (their son) didn’t come home for lunch. She said that Rob Summer (the alias used by Peter Whitmore) and (the Winnipeg victim) have him. Life took a sharp and painful turn.

Who is this guy? The search is on. Police and more police. No (son). Time stops. (His son) is gone. Numb with pain. Who is this person? Police bring a picture. That’s him, Rob Summer. Who is he? We can’t tell you at this time.

On Canada AM — Peter Whitmore is a pedophile. God, if (his son) has to go please take him quick.

Morning comes. Good news, he doesn’t kill his victims, just sexually assaults them. Sick with fear and a building rage for this could happen to us. Police explain the Amber Alert — child in harm’s way. Police and media know Whitmore well. So mind-numbing and hard to understand. Our family members so far away, a state of shock and bewilderment and major stress. Try to understand.

My wife blames herself for how Whitmore did this. Truly not her fault, just a cunning Whitmore I say to her. The rest of our lives to live with. We are strong but are we strong enough? For this we have to hope.

Prayers are answered with (his son) being found. He is our (son). But not the (son) we had. The battered body and the shattered look. A whole new life begins. AIDS cocktails, hepatitis drugs, and all the sexually transmitted disease products for our 10 year old boy. His innocence gone.


— Stepfather of the Winnipeg victim:

Ever since this happened to my family things haven’t been the same. Emotional feelings all over the house. I feel that my wife hates me, somewhat. I cant talk to my wife on what she is feeling. I feel angry, mad, upset. Also feel that I let my family down as a father when this happened to (his stepson).

I was looking day and night, not sleeping, not eating, not stopping. When I came back from looking I couldn’t look at my wife in the face. She was really mad. I don’t feel loved sometimes from my family. I don’t get respect sometimes, feelings are crazy at the house. I can’t sleep.

Sometimes it feels like it happened just yesterday. I cry when people from my family are around. I think of it everyday day and night. When I wake up until I go to bed. I feel lost, my heart hurts.

I feel like I did something wrong inside of me. My life changed on that day. Feelings are so hard. I lost my habits going out to work. I don’t have the feel for it right now. It’s hard trying going back to work.

I lost trusting everybody that I don’t know. I’ve been feeling like this for about one year now. I cry inside thinking that it is my fault. Where did I go wrong? Why is this happening to me? It feels that I come to the end of the world.

A year’s gone by and I still feel the same on that day when (his stepson) was gone. My marriage isn’t the same, it’s up and down. July is a good plus bad month for us. But more bad, hurting feelings. I feel scared, sad, lost, down, upset, angry my family also has to go through each day that goes by.

People know who I am all over Winnipeg. They ask how (his stepson) is. I say OK. I feel like crying. I feel that I let down everybody. Right now I’m feeling distressed, hopeless, worthless, and lost. I feel mad, also, too, I feel sick inside myself while I writing this letter.

Just like it happened yesterday. I wish God would take this pain away from our hearts and souls. If there’s a God, I want to send him an SOS. Call.


— One sister of the Saskatchewan victim:

I see a counsellor weekly. (Her brother) does not talk about it at all. I found out he was chained to a bed post. I saw some marks on his wrist and ankles.

I think Whitmore is really mean.

As a family we didn’t go anywhere. We got family to run to do errands. When (her brother) went missing my sister was watching us and she forgot something and had to leave. I thought Whitmore might come back so I was scared. I am still scared sometimes to stay home alone.

I just want to get this over with, because it keeps on bringing back the memories. I want to be in the courtroom when Whitmore is sentenced because I want to see what happens when a guy does something like that.


— Another sister of the Saskatchewan victim:

I really didn’t like Peter Whitmore when I first saw him. He looked mean. He came and asked for eggs and when we didn’t have any he got disappointed and that made me scared. I stayed in the house because I was scared while (her brother) showed them the pigs. (Her brother) would be friends with everyone he knew. I found out after he got home that Peter Whitmore told (her brother) that if he didn’t help him he would get me. I felt very very scared and I wanted to stay near everyone.

There is a bully at school and he beats on my brother because of what happened. It makes me feel mad and angry when he does that to him. My mom is going to home-school us in the fall of 07. My friend is home-schooled.

This tragic event has made our family closer together. I feel scared when me and my brother and sister are home alone and I like it when my Mom comes and picks us up to go to her work. I won’t answer the door if I don’t know the person and I know how to phone my sister and Mom and Dad.

I see a counsellor weekly to help me with what happened. I felt left out when all the attention and the presents and cards were for (her brother). I felt that everyone forgot about me and my sister. So at the end of the month we are having a coming home party for (her brother).

[Kelly]

http://www.post-gaze...2/848765-51.stm

Men in tough spot with kids
Fear of sexual predators, who are usually male, raises suspicions

Saturday, January 12, 2008
By Cristina Rouvalis, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

In a society where pedophiles are outed and shamed as part of prime-time entertainment, it has come to this: Tony Taylor, a Pittsburgh father, says he wouldn't come to the aid of a crying child lost in the mall.

"For a guy to think he can walk up and say, 'Can I help you, kid?' he obviously does not watch the news," said Mr. Taylor, a retired military officer who lives in Turtle Creek. "Being a human being, I would call the shopkeeper. But I wouldn't approach the kid myself."

It can be tough being a man seen around children these days, Mr. Taylor and other men's rights leaders would argue. Gotcha shows such as "To Catch a Predator'' and front-page stories about pedophiles have fueled such a fervor that just being around a child can raise unfounded suspicions. The distrust can surface anywhere, they said, from airplane seats to billboard campaigns to random encounters with a child.

Virginia, for example, launched a sexual abuse prevention campaign that used billboard ads featuring a man's hand intertwined with a child's hand with a tagline, "It doesn't feel right when I see them together." The campaign enraged many men.

"I realize there are bad people in this world," said Mr. Taylor, a leader in the Dads Custody Support Group of Pittsburgh. "But the media can convince people that every Arabic guy in a beard is a terrorist and every little black boy will steal your purse and every guy with a kid looks kind of fishy. You might want to call 9-1-1 just to be sure. You never know."

Rebecca K. Odor, director of sexual and domestic violence prevention for the Virginia Department of Health, agreed "most men are not perpetrators. But the problem is most sexual abuse perpetrators are men. "It puts everyone in a hard place. It is especially hard for men," she said, adding she is in talks with men to tweak the message.

Ms. Odor said the campaign was designed to tell people to trust their gut instincts about sexual abuse and noted it resonated with adults who had been abused as children. "They said the only way it could have been stopped is if another adult paid attention to the warning signs."

Some men complain pedophile suspicions are so widespread that it even affects the seating of unaccompanied minors at some airlines such as British Airways, which makes an attempt to put unaccompanied minors in a seat next to a woman. (US Airways and Southwest Airlines, however, do not have such a policy.)

"It's gotten to the point if you send a kid on a plane alone, they won't put him next to a man," said Marc Rudov, a Pittsburgh native and California TV and radio personality who is the author of the Web site www.thenononsenseman.com.

"This man is allowed to get married and have children. On the airplane, he is a presumed pedophile. When you teach your children you can't sit next to him because he might hurt you, what do you think girls are going to think about men? What do you think a boy is going to think about himself and his father?"

Mr. Rudov believes it has become difficult for men to innocently be around young children without raising suspicions. But others say that doesn't ring true. They point to all the dads coaching soccer or going on Indian Princess father-daughter campouts.

"Men are spending a lot more time with children than when I was a kid," said Dr. David Finkelhor, director of the University of New Hampshire's Crimes against Children Research Center, which has found 95 percent of sexual abuse perpetrators are male.

"I think it would be hard to argue that sex abuse hysteria has driven [men] away. But there are challenges. I think men are more conscious of physical interaction around kids and time alone. It has made it harder to be a child care worker and male."

Day care workers are overwhelmingly female -- so much so that Patrick Webster said that it was a hindrance when he opened a preschool program in Pine in the 1990s.

Back then, some people were thrilled to see a positive male role model in the business, but it made other people nervous, said Mr. Webster, now administrative director of Shady Lane School, an early care and education program in Point Breeze.

"There was a bit of hesitation on some people's part. There were people who would not enroll their children in the program."

Now he believes that people tend to be less uneasy about a male day care worker or preschool teacher. "It is now less of a problem. We are making some strides in finding professional-level caregivers who are male."

Male teachers also are a rarity in elementary schools, dropping from an all-time high of 18 percent in 1981 to 9 percent in 2004, according to the National Education Association, the nation's largest teacher union. The NEA attributes economic reasons and gender stereotypes for the decline -- not social hysteria.

The administrators at Roosevelt Elementary School in Carrick have worked hard to find good male teachers, and the parents often request them, said Principal Vincent Lewandowski. All things equal between two qualified candidates, Mr. Lewandowski tries to hire men to bring diversity to the mostly female teaching staff.

Still, with all the headlines about pedophiles, he said he and his male staff are extra vigilant about not doing anything that could even be construed as inappropriate.

"It is a very touchy subject," Mr. Lewandowski said. "In the past 10 years, as society has changed and become more aware of pedophilia, education has changed, too.

"As males, we are hypersensitive about it. I never put myself in a situation where I could be construed as compromising myself. When a child comes into my office, and I am alone with him, my door is open."

Male youth ministers also have to concern themselves with outside appearances.

"I make it a point to never be with kids in a one-on-one way that other people don't know about it," said Todd Tracy, director of youth and young adult ministries at Community Presbyterian Church of Ben Avon. "It is a concern of mine. It is always in the back of my mind. But it is not a big issue."

Roy Peter Clark, a writing coach, believes that heightened fears over men with small children is a type of profiling, and it's the reason he agonized when he heard a child asking for help in the men's room of his church in St. Petersburg, Fla.

"Are you OK in there?" asked Mr. Clark, vice president and senior scholar at the Poynter Institute, a St. Petersburg-based school for journalism.

"Mister, I can't pull up my zipper," the little boy called out. "Can you help me?"

Those 11 words stopped him in his tracks.

"I'm in a Catholic church, in the middle of the greatest sexual scandal in the history of Catholicism, in the men's room, with a boy who wants me to help him with his zipper," Mr. Clark wrote in a recent column. (He said he waited two years to write about the topic because he did not want to stigmatize the little boy or his family.)

Later, he asked his friends what they would do if they were faced with such an excruciating predicament. They recommended getting the parents, making an announcement from the pulpit or -- his favorite -- go get a woman.

"In other words, men cannot be trusted with little boys," he wrote in his column.

As he agonized over what to do, an old man walked into the bathroom. In a loud voice, Mr. Clark asked the little boy what he wanted to do and repeated it back so the old man would hear before helping the boy with his zipper, an act of male solidarity.

Mr. Clark, the father of three grown daughters, thinks there is more suspicion around men today than decades ago.

"But it doesn't upset me. It reinforces my personal determination to help children when I can," he said. "I know other men, good men, may be forced to stand aside. Out of fear or suspicion or worse, there will be fewer and fewer Good Samaritans in an era when Good Samaritans are sometimes prosecuted for their actions."

[Kelly]

http://www.kptm.com/....asp?S=11766636


Controversial Change to Sex Offender Registry Takes Effect

Posted: Jan 4, 2010 03:43 PM

Meghan Youker

PAPILLION (KPTM) — The name of every sex offender in Nebraska is now available online, no matter how serious their crime.  Monday a Sarpy County District Court judge lifted an order issued last week, which had prevented the Nebraska State Patrol from posting that information on the Internet.

A click of the mouse and the public now has quick access to the names, photos, and addresses of about 1,400 Nebraska sex offenders once considered by the state to be at low or moderate risk for re–offending.  That's regardless of what kind of life the person has lived since.  "Attorney General Bruning and the Legislature created these two laws, LB 97 and LB 285, to protect kids and families.  Today we took another step forward in that effort and we're confident that in the long run, when this is all over, that these new laws will be upheld and be constitutional," said Chief Deputy Attorney General David Cookson.

Changes to the Sex Offender Registry Act are being challenged in both state and federal court.

Monday inside courtroom number six, a Sarpy County District Court judge reversed his colleague's decision, ruling sex offenders wouldn't be "irreparably harmed" by the web postings while lawyers argue the constitutionality of certain parts of the law in court.  "They've already paid their dues.  They have a new law now that changes the landscape from what it was before, where they had the right to avoid being on the Internet and the state found a number of them to be low risk or moderate risk and now they're all being lumped together," said the plaintiff's attorney Stu Dornan.

The new system also increases the number of crimes that require registration and boosts the amount of personal information posted.  Plus the duration of a person's listing is now based solely on the convicted offense.  At a minimum, it's 15 years for a misdemeanor.

Critics say it opens people who pose no danger up to public scrutiny.  "The impact on their families, on their ability to earn a living, their ability to travel.  This law is very restrictive," Dornan said.

The changes were passed by the Legislature last year and were supposed to go into effect January 1.  Last month, a federal judge temporarily halted enforcement of two other parts of the law that would allow authorities to monitor sex offender's computer usage and ban them from social networking sites like My Space and Facebook.