ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 18, 1991                   TAG: 9104180596
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

PEDOPHILES ARE REPEAT OFFENDERS

AS THE FATHER of a daughter who soon will turn 2, I am compelled to voice my concerns and displeasure with the justice system in Roanoke city. On March 26, in Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court, prosecutor Alice Ekirch and a judge agreed to give a man who had sexually assaulted a 2-year-old one year in jail, suspended after 10 days. The man also was ordered to get sexual-offender counseling.

To protect the victim's privacy, the court wouldn't release the name of this sick individual who preys not on children but on babies.

What is sickening is that it is statistically and clinically proved that pedophiles commit such acts over and over before being caught - and will again, with or without "sexual-offender counseling." Yet these two court officials felt 10 days in jail was warranted in this case.

It's a pathetic system when one can commit such an act against a future citizen of the world and society and receive this kind of sentence. Alice Ekirch and the judge should be tried for ineffectiveness and poor job performance! BARRY LEW TROUTVILLE 


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