American Man Gets 20 Years for Molesting Thai Children

[WannaGo]

He told the judge that, because he's 61, this is essentially a death sentence. Guess he's probably not far wrong, but I can dredge up much sympathy for him.

NEWARK, N.J. — A small-time actor and former children's entertainer who was known for playing Santa Claus was sentenced Monday to nearly 20 years in prison for his role in an international sex tourism ring that preyed on young children.

Wayne Nelson Corliss, whose 2008 arrest was the culmination of an international manhunt, had admitted traveling to Thailand three times between 2000 and 2002 to have sex with at least two boys, ages 6 and 9. He pleaded guilty last October to five counts that included distribution and possession of child pornography and traveling to foreign countries to engage in illegal sexual activity.

"You have acted beyond the bounds of human decency," U.S. District Judge Joseph A. Greenaway told Corliss on Monday.

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[Bob]

He told the judge that, because he's 61, this is essentially a death sentence.

Yea, so what - the creep gets no sympathy from me. If I had been the Judge when the jerk made that statement, I would have answered: "It's all about you, isn't it? And what about the lives of all those kids you screwed up forever? Get out of my face and go to jail, you slimeball."

[lvdkeyes]

I hope he lives out his time in prison and drops dead the day he is due for release.

[Beer Chang]

The article states he was also a department store type Santa that would fondle the kids on his lap.

[WannaGo]

Crap...huge typo in my post. Should have read "I can't dredge up much sympathy for him."

[Wino]

I hope he lives out his time in prison and drops dead the day he is due for release.

I think his prison time will be hell and could even be killed by fellow inmates. I hear that other prisoners do not like child molesters.

[WannaGo]

I hope he lives out his time in prison and drops dead the day he is due for release.

I like your sense of irony...and justice.

[lvdkeyes]

I call it divine justice, Thais call it karma.

[Wino]

I call it, "every dog has its day" or "what goes around, comes around."

[Thaimo]

It is truly a sad and sickening aspect of Thailand that news reports about foreigners who come here to molest children is nothing new and nothing unusual. While I am happy this man was caught and is now suffering the consequences, the frightening thought is wondering how many others come to Thailand for similar purposes and have not been caught, along with how many more are planning out their first trip.

[WannaGo]

It is truly a sad and sickening aspect of Thailand that news reports about foreigners who come here to molest children is nothing new and nothing unusual. While I am happy this man was caught and is now suffering the consequences, the frightening thought is wondering how many others come to Thailand for similar purposes and have not been caught, along with how many more are planning out their first trip.

I wonder what it is about Thailand that attracts these guys, as opposed to other poor nations in Southeast Asia or South America.

[lvdkeyes]

I suspect it has to do with the Thais attitude toward sex in general. Many parents don't see it as a problem if it puts food on the table.

[Bob]

Almost every time I see an article in the Thai newspapers about the arrest of some foreign pedophile, it turns out that the creep has a record for sex offenses against kids in his home country. That really pisses me off as it raises the question as to why the Thais would ever allow a convicted sex offenders (or, hell, any convicted felon) into their country. To get into this country, they swipe your passport and there should be no reason at all why the computers can't have adequate information from the criminal data bases from the foreigner's home country. You stop those bastards from preying on Thai kids at the immigration desk (presuming you want to stop them from entering). I'm not so sure they give a rat's ass and that's rather sad to me.

[lvdkeyes]

I agree, but I also don't understand why the home country would allow a convicted felon to have a passport at all.

[Bob]

I agree, but I also don't understand why the home country would allow a convicted felon to have a passport at all.

I absolutely agree there (although there might be some issues there with the constitution with respect to the freedom to travel issue). If we're legally allowed to have sex offenders register for the rest of their life, maybe one additional protection would be to require notification of that status on their passports. In any event, the whole theory behind registration is to let people know that a sex offender is in their midst and that supposedly gives them more information to help protect their own children; given our concern should be for all children (not just US children), some type of passport notification ought to pass muster.

That being said, there's no excuse for a country admitting any person convicted of a serious felony in another country. If I owned the country, I sure as hell wouldn't want them visiting.

[Of course, the basic background problem here is that pedophiles generally have a serious history of serial/recidivist predation of children, i.e., somebody that rapes a child is very likely to do it again and many experts claim that there is no treatment which will substantially reduce that likelihood]

[WannaGo]

[Of course, the basic background problem here is that pedophiles generally have a serious history of serial/recidivist predation of children, i.e., somebody that rapes a child is very likely to do it again and many experts claim that there is no treatment which will substantially reduce that likelihood]

That's why many states have civil commitment laws which provide for continued incarceration for sex offenders deemed to still be a danger after serving prison sentences.

Technically, they're supposed to be "hospitalized" for treatment, but the reality is, as you mentioned, many of them can't actually be "fixed," so their commitment just ends up being an extension of the prison sentence...and I have no problem with that. Many sex crimes should be capital offenses anyway.

Of course, these programs have not been without their problems. Check out this series the New York Times ran a couple of years ago.

[lvdkeyes]

As I understand it, holding s US passport is a privilege, not a right and can be denied with justification. Law enforcement officers can request denial.

[stkyricesf]

As I understand it, holding s US passport is a privilege, not a right and can be denied with justification. Law enforcement officers can request denial.

Can a United States sex felon get a passport?

The quick answer is yes, at least in the United States. There is

nothing in U.S. law that prevents most felons from receiving a

passport -- unless the terms of parole, probation or sentencing deny

the person a right to a passport or international travel.

A passport is a document that certifies a person's citizenship. It is

not a guarantee of character or anything else; it is basically an

identity document. In fact, the passport form doesn't even ask the

applicant about criminal history.

[Wino]

Here is an article about a 100 year old pedo. Many thought he would die in prison . Here he is out and ready to rape and abuse children again.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (Dec. 10) -- Everything that pedophile Theodore Sypnier has to show for his 100 years on earth is packed in a single duffel bag as he prepares to begin a new chapter in life: freedom.

It's a chapter that prosecutors, judges and others who know him never wanted -- or expected -- to see written.

New York's oldest registered sex offender is scheduled to move by week's end out of a Buffalo halfway house for released inmates and into a place of his own, after completing his latest term in state prison for molesting little girls

The judge who sentenced him said at the time that she expected him to die behind bars.

But 10 years after his last arrest, as Sypnier prepared to shed the closely monitored lifestyle of the halfway house, its director warned that the spry and active Sypnier has not changed from the manipulator who used his grandfatherly charm to snare and rape victims as young as 4.

"Whether he's 100 or 101 or 105, the same person that was committing these crimes 10, 25, 30 years ago still exists today and has an unrepentant heart," said the Rev. Terry King, director of Grace House, which has twice taken Sypnier in from prison. "He is someone that we as parents, as members of the community, any community, really need to fear."

Six months after marking his 100th birthday in the Groveland Correctional Facility -- becoming the first New York inmate to reach the milestone while incarcerated -- the retired telephone company worker now says he wants to get to know the youngest members of a family that has disowned him.

"I'll tell them I never harmed any children," the father, grandfather and great-grandfather told his hometown newspaper, The Buffalo News.

A former daughter-in-law said he is not likely to get the chance.

"No one from the family plans to have any contact with him," Diane Sypnier said before ending a brief phone interview.

Being grandfatherly was how the 5-foot-5, 150-pound Sypnier found his victims, authorities say. After his most recent arrest at age 90 on charges of raping and sodomizing a 4-year-old girl and her 7-year-old sister, his neighbors in the suburb of Tonawanda recalled what appeared to be a kindly Sypnier offering rides to adults, handing out money to children so they could buy candy, and baby-sitting.

The victimized sisters called him "Grandpa," their mother said at the time, adding that it "was a total shock" when police showed her sexually explicit pictures of her girls found in Sypnier's apartment.

Sypnier's convictions date to 1987, when he was given three years' probation for sex abuse. He spent a year in prison for sexually abusing a minor in 1994. His neighbors in Tonawanda never knew of Sypnier's background because he was convicted before the adoption of laws requiring sex offenders to register with police.

A relative once came forward and said Sypnier had molested her while she was growing up, former Erie County prosecutor Frank Clark told the News. Authorities wonder what else might lie in Sypnier's past.

"People don't start to become pedophiles at 78," Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita told the AP. "I call them vampires. ... This is something that's deep inside of them, and they won't want to stop doing this until they're dead."

But Sypnier says he is the victim of a miscarriage of justice, despite twice pleading guilty in the case involving the sisters.

"Those children crawled into bed with me because they were frightened, but there was never any sexual hanky-panky," Sypnier told the News.

Sypnier initially pleaded guilty in 2000 to two counts of rape, 15 counts of sodomy and endangering the welfare of a child for molesting the Tonawanda girls, as well as three in Buffalo. An appeals court threw out the conviction in 2002 after Sypnier claimed he was confused at the time, leading to another plea the following year to a lesser charge.

In sentencing Sypnier to as many as 10 years in prison, state Supreme Court Justice Penny Wolfgang told him she expected he would spend the rest of his life behind bars.

"The sheer notion of him wandering the streets unattended or unsupervised is a scary proposition," King said.

Sypnier was released on parole in 2007, only to be returned to prison in 2008 after failing to attend sex-offender counseling. He completed his term in November and will be on parole through 2012. Until then, he's forbidden from using e-mail, chat rooms or social networking sites; hanging around playgrounds or schools; or spending time in bars.

Instead, he spends his days watching television, cooking, socializing in the halfway house and attending programming, King said.

Sypnier's new address has not been disclosed, but the law requires him to enter it in the state's sex offender registry.

Although his age makes him New York's oldest registered sex offender, there is at least one older offender elsewhere. Bert Jackson of Utah is 103 and living under home confinement.

http://www.sphere.com/crime/article/100-year-old-child-molester-to-be-released-from-prison/19274210

　

[Beer Chang]

the retired telephone company worker now says he wants to get to know the youngest members of a family that has disowned him.

I bet he does.

[Wino]

I think the district attorney was right on when he said,

"People don't start to become pedophiles at 78," Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita told the AP. "I call them vampires. ... This is something that's deep inside of them, and they won't want to stop doing this until they're dead."