Hunting predators: U.S. Attorney announces success, plans to protect kids
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Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Healey speaks as U.S. Attorney Timothy Heaphy looks on.PHOTO BY COURTENEY STUART
Online child predators are real, they’re here, and there are more of them than anyone wants to imagine. That was the message at a press conference today, where U.S. Attorney Tim Heaphy outlined the ways in which his office is working to support Attorney General Eric Holder’s recently announced National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction, an effort that creates 38 new assistant U.S. Attorney positions dedicated to fighting predation of children.
Among the frightening figures Heaphy offered: that between 2005 and 2009, the number of child pornography movies and photos submitted by law enforcement for identification of the victim increased by 432 percent nationally. And prosecutions, Heaphy says, have also increased from around 1,300 nationally in 2006 to more than 2,000 in 2009.
Flanked by law enforcement officers from the FBI, the City of Charlottesville, and a variety of other jurisdictions, Heaphy cited three Virginia cases that illustrate the pervasive and terrifying problem of predators targeting children. In the first case he mentioned, Downtown Mall businessman Charles Francis Lindauer, the 41-year-old boss and founder of SpatiaLogic high-tech mapping company, pled guilty on August 11 to charges relating to possession and transportation of child pornography. Lindauer, who Heaphy says admitted to viewing child porn for a decade and used an unnamed peer-to-peer file sharing program to trade his images with others, faces a minimum of five years in prison.
Heaphy also cited 55-year-old Greene County resident Gary Lee Rimmer, who pled guilty last month to possession and distribution of child porn, and who had been in contact with a 13-year-old Florida girl to whom he sent sex toys. The girl, who believed Rimmer was 20, allegedly sent him pornographic images of herself with the toys.
The final perpetrator, 21-year-old Adam Derek Blevins of Washington County, Virginia, pled guilty earlier this year to traveling to Tennessee for a sexual encounter with a 13-year-old girl whom he met on a dating site and whose age he had learned was under 16. Blevins and the girl arranged for him to pick her up off the school bus, after which they went to a secluded area where they engaged in a sexual encounter before Blevins returned the girl to school where she was in the sixth grade.
“We talk about these cases not to embarrass the defendants but simply to educate parents and their children about the dangers that surround us,” said Heaphy.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Healey, the office’s Project Safe Childhood coordinator, urged parents to check in on their children’s online lives regularly, and she gave a quick tutorial on kids’ often confusing online lingo including POS (Parent Over Shoulder), PNB (Parent Nearby), and LMIRL (Let’s Meet in Real Life). Healey is a regular presenter of a multi-media presentation of online dangers to children and says she hopes churches, schools, and community groups will continue to invite her to speak on the topic.
“I would much rather know that I said something that prevented another incident of sexual abuse,” she said, “than to indict another case to prosecute because someone made themselves vulnerable to becoming a victim of sexual abuse.”
Parents interested in learning more about keeping their children safe can find tips at projectsafechildhood.gov.
“We talk about these cases not to embarrass the defendants but simply to educate parents and their children about the dangers that surround us,” said Heaphy.
God knows we don’t want to embarrass any child molesters, but perhaps thats all we’re going to get from some of these prosecutions? One case cited above led to a 5+ year sentence, but the other two have no mention of what these defendants are looking at in the way of jail time..?
Virginia can’t catch a cold.
I get how crack dealers can be rehabilitated, but how the heck can someone that likes kiddie porn be fixed?
@? - I get how crack dealers can be rehabilitated, but how the heck can someone that likes kiddie porn be fixed? = good question! IMHO they can’t. It’s like an addiction…once and addict, always an addict.
How about unannounced visits in to homes by the police to catch parents sexually abusing their children? Isn’t most child sexual abuse done at home by a family member?
This is all just a total waste of money. It accomplishes nothing. And a show like “To Catch A Predator” accomplishes nothing if most child sexual abuse occurs by a family member at home.
Bullet to the back of the head
My daughter was approached by what i feel is a predator and I believe registered in the state of California Redding County we involved the Franklin County Sheriff’s office. The State of California and the Common Wealth did not determine that enough graphic sexual overtures apparently were transmitted by the cell phones. No Porno pictures we could see nor the Sheriff. The Redding County resident met my daughter after posing as a 16 yearold in a student based chat room. He turned out to be 30 and his mug shot was provided to us. My daughter was placed on a supervised school day as arrangements by the predator were similar to the Tennessee case above. However he was coming to Viginia to take her with him after getting off the school bus and not returning to school, in his words it would give them a good 8 hour head start before we knew she was gone. She is 15. I felt this was enough to arrest the predator, but guess what no it’s not. They had to wait for them to flee together before they could pursue it. Well I learned alot, the law no matter how they want to hold press conferences and be perceived DOES NOT WORK
ON YOUR SIDE TO PREVENT ANYTHING UNTIL YOU ARE VICTIMIZED. The phone calls finally stopped from this guy when the Redding County California Sheriff made contact and told the guy he should cease contact. Short of it is watch everything they do take the cell phones away and no computer access. They will find your kids and kids are not smart enough to know what is happening. Educate them and keep the sheriff involved no matter how hard it is to hear they have to follow the rules, but with them knowing of the situation they can help you monitor it. I have been proactive and maybe just maybe saved my kid. I hope they continue to monitor this predator in California. I hope someone elses daughter has not fell prey to him.
What about the pedophiles this year at the Albemarle County Fair? Do you think the carnies can be rehabilitated?
Chemical castration on first offense
@ireadcville: you’re right that most child abuse happens within the context of a family, but those cases are much harder to prove in the rare circumstance that they are introduced to our criminal justice system.
Child sexual abuse often will break up a family. The abuse becomes an issue in custody disputes. It has become a mantra that mothers bring sex abuse allegations falsely in order to win custody battles. Our family courts actively seek to remove children from these mothers so that they do not continue to ‘alienate’ these victims of child sexual abuse. Too often, our family courts take the victims of rape and force them to live with their rapist and meanwhile castigate the one person trying to protect them.
This has happened again and again and again. Our local courts have perpetuated this travesty.
So, while it is a sad fact that these online predators are the tip of the iceberg, one shouldn’t deride law enforcement for taking on these cases. After all, the tip of the iceberg is the only part that one can see.
I think the “cure” for child abuse is a bullet in the head of the abuser. Then they cant assualt more kids. Done.
just remeber one thing in our rush to protect lets not forget this proverb…….A liar’s lips are a cover for hate, but whom ever utters slander is a fool……
I second Bullet Tooth Tony’s solution…would rather have it applied to the forhead though, would want them to see it coming!
Before the bullet to the forehead there should be castration and penile amputation…without anesthesia.
I don’t need these bureaucratic slugs and media showboating clowns to tell me about predators.
All I have to do is go to the Virginia State Police website and go into the Sex Offender Registry and then I can see the faces that grace the downtown mall and University Corner. Every simgle zip code in this area has DOZENS of these guys and they love to hang out at the mall and the Corner.
The amazing thing is how many delusional whacked out liberals around here like to give 20 dollar bills to convicted sex offenders!!!!!
This community needs electro shock therapy administered to our clueless local politicians and zany young pseudo journalists who love to spout rationalizations for our criminals.
make that every SINGLE zip code—–new keyboard time