According to the Associated Press, an Israeli travel agent was sentenced to 16 years in prison for raping Miss World at knifepoint in October 1998. The rape occurred two months before she was crowned Miss World.
Offenders use every advantage to influence prospective victims. They are bigger and stronger and they know children are taught to obey adults. They may pretend to be a police officer or some other trustworthy person who children are taught to respect. Even when children are in a safe and healthy home environment, they are curious, they are easily influenced and manipulated. In the vast majority of reported cases of sexual abuse involving children, the predator is someone the child knows – often a family member.
Dennis Snow, of Gardendale, is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty in Birmingham’s federal court to child pornography possession charges.
Ralph Mendenhall is a registered sex offender in Minnesota who is giving up his Gulf Shores residence for good because Baldwin County deputies put him on notice that his apartment was too close to a child day care center.
(Gulf Shores, Minnesota)
Daily News
Matthew Taylor, a Littleton, Colorado gymnastics coach who was accused of molesting children inhis club, was facing 17 counts of sexual assault, and charges he molested a 12 year old gymnast.Before he killed himself during a shoot-out with Utah State Patrol, he wrote a farewell note to hisparents.
Kenneth Hardy, a grandfather, videotaped himself having sex with his 15-month-old granddaughter. He has pleaded guilty to three counts of felony rape, sodomy and sexual abuse. Prosecutors offered Hardy a plea bargain in exchange for his guilty pleas to avoid showing the tape to a jury.
Editors Note: Statistics indicate that approximately half of sex offenders who target family members will also target non-family members.