Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 14, 1992 TAG: 9202140183
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
MOLESTER BETRAYED FAMILIES
When James F. Beyroutey moved from California to a Roanoke apartment complex, he often talked about how much he missed his young grandchildren.As Beyroutey, 52, settled in and began to make friends at home and work, some of his new neighbors started to let their children spend time with him.
"We trusted him completely," one man said. "He was like a grandfather to them."
It was only after Beyroutey was accused of sexually abusing two young girls that parents learned he was a two-time convicted child molester and that he had served prison time in California for abusing his own granddaughters in the mid-1980s.
Beyroutey, who has been in the Roanoke City Jail since he was arrested last October, pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts of aggravated sexual battery. He will face a maximum punishment of 40 years in prison when he is sentenced later in Roanoke Circuit Court.
The parents of one of his 8-year-old victims are upset with a system that allowed Beyroutey to move into a community where no one knew of his prior record - and no one was warned.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Ann Hill, who prosecuted Beyroutey, said some states have laws that require convicted child molesters to register with police when they move into a new locality. Virginia has no such law.
The parents of the 8-year-old - who are not being named so their daughter's identity will be protected - said such a law might have kept them from so easily believing that Beyroutey was the kindly gentleman he seemed.
"If possible, I'd like to see it tattooed on their forehead that they're a convicted child molester," the father said. "I know that will never happen, but we need to make people aware of what these people are convicted of."
Since the incident, the parents have examined literature and talked to legislators, becoming quick studies in the field of child sexual abuse.
They have learned that more than 80 percent of child molestations involve a family member, friend or acquaintance. "We teach our children to beware of strangers," the mother said. "But we don't teach them to beware of their relatives and their friends."
And they have learned that pedophiles are usually not susceptible to treatment and are likely to become repeat offenders.
What they have learned makes them even more angry about how easy it was for someone like Beyroutey to prey on their children.
"It's like putting a wolf in a flock of sheep," the father said.
But Steve Milani, an assistant public defender who represented Beyroutey, questioned the privacy issues and practical applications of a law that would require public identification of lawbreakers.
One of the problems with such legislation is determining who - if anyone - should be warned in each particular case.
"How would you go about doing that?" Milani asked. "Would you require shoplifters and drunk drivers to wear signs saying what they were convicted of?"
Because Beyroutey was on parole after his California charges, probation officials in Roanoke were notified of his case.
Still, the parents said, there was nothing to warn them until it was too late.
When Beyroutey moved to Roanoke more than a year ago, it was easy for him to gain acceptance. He had legitimate job connections: A California company had transferred him to train employees in manufacturing automated teller machines at a local industry.
And it wasn't long before he began to tell neighbors how much he missed his six grandchildren back home.
"We slowly got to know him," the father said. As they did, parents began to let Beyroutey look after their children. He became known as the neighborhood baby sitter, and sometimes kept children at his apartment overnight.
In summarizing the evidence Thursday, prosecutor Hill said the 8-year-old and her 9-year-old friend were molested between December 1990 and October 1991.
When the children stayed at his apartment, Beyroutey would show them pornographic movies and then fondle them, Hill said. On some occasions, he slept nude in the same bed with the children, she said.
The abuse was discovered when one of the victims told her parents, who called police. It was only after authorities began to investigate that parents learned of Beyroutey's earlier convictions.
Hill said at least two other young girls claimed to have been molested, but Beyroutey was not charged because they refused to testify.
Although the case will be completed when Beyroutey is sentenced in April, the 8-year-old's parents are not willing to put the experience behind them.
They plan to talk to legislators about pushing for tougher child molestation laws, and want to educate the public about how easily an abuser can gain the trust of an unknowing child and an unsuspecting parent.
The mother said Beyroutey became such a part of their life that on Christmas morning, she kept the children upstairs until he had arrived to see them open their gifts.
"He would say how being with us made him feel like he was with his own family," she said. "And we fell for it."