Pedophile Problem Haunts Cornwall

A recent story in the Cornwall Standard Freeholder about a worldwide search for a pedophile (i.e. one pedophile) caught my attention.

I guess that the public are intended to think that finally Interpol and the other police agencies have developed such a sophisticated tracking system, that pedophiles around the world will cringe in fear.

It’s the kind of story that leaves out so much more information than it uncovers. Not that the abuse of one boy and the sending of his picture over the Internet isn’t important. It is important but its importance pales in comparison to what else is going on around the world.

Take our own community, Cornwall, for example. The provincial government is using millions of our tax dollars in a Public Inquiry to try to discover how pedophiles operate in communities, how our institutions either deal with or ignore pedophilia, and what can be done for the future of our children so they will never be abused again.

Meanwhile the Children’s Treatment Centre is raising tens of thousands of dollars to provide treatment for children who have been abused, and there’s no question that this is money well spent. But it also appears that there is no limit to the funds necessary to provide psychological assessments and counselling for all of the damaged children in this community.

The Cornwall Public Inquiry and the Children’s Treatment Centre are both dealing with the effects of pedophilia, but they also have a few other things in common.

Neither one is dealing with the rehabilitation and punishment of these pedophiles or the prevention of further child abuse crimes.

How many trials have there been in Cornwall and area in the past year or two, ones that have charged pedophiles and convicted them? Less than a handful I would think. When the abused children come to the Treatment Centre, is it known whom the abusers are and what happens to that information?

If there are literally several 100’s of children (and perhaps more) in the counties who have suffered from abuse, who are the perpetrators of this abuse and when will they be brought to justice, tried, sentenced and rehabilitated?

So, in conclusion, when I see an international story in the newspaper about the tracking of one pedophile, a red flag goes up. The breaking news story about pedophiles isn't out there, it's right here in Cornwall!

Will we ever find out about the dozens and dozens of pedophiles operating in our area? If the answer is “no” than there will be no change or healing or reconciliation in this community because the problem of pedophilia will quietly remain under the radar as they have for centuries.

As a community we’ve got to start asking the tough questions, and make people accountable for their actions if we want change.

Comments

[Hancock]

I live in the US and in ways your right more should be done about pedophiles but rushing any action will give you whats going on in the US right now where when a person that committed a sex crime (and the list for things that are a sex crime is long) and accepts his\her punishment they are thrown in with all sex offenders in a shotgun at the problem way even when they are done with there time and rehabilitated there right to freedom is still taken a way with the one rule of if your ever convicted or plea guilty to a sex crime you will always be a sex offender and therefor you will always have to register with a national database and your freedom to remain anonymous is taken away and thrown in the wind

It will take countless years before the law is corrected or it will gradually get worst and remember all it takes is one mistake one bad night out one girl under eighteen and your a sex offender the rest of your life affecting jobs and residences you will be available for or offered