Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Zachary's Future?



Last night there was a collective sigh of relief heard across this country as a little 10 year old boy named Zachary Miller managed to escape on his own and into the safe arms of the police. As soon as the good news spread, the voiced anger rose.

Zachary had been kidnapped from his family farm in rural Saskatchewan by man who had been hanging around the community for a week while he attempted to endear himself to the residents. Taken from his front lawn. Grabbed and forced into a van by a man who happens to be a well known convicted Pedophile to the legal system. For 48 hours, Zachary Miller endured unrelenting fear and terror and who knows what else while community members and police joined forces to try to find him. An Amber alert was issued right away................news and photos spread across the country.

Canadians learned very quickly throughout the ordeal who Peter Whitmore was. This 35 year old man has a record of offenses dating back to 1993. After sexually assaulting 4 young boys he was sent to prison. Since then, he had been convicted of sexually assaulting an 8 year old girl, has been found with lists of children's names, and has been in and out of the Canadian penal system. And as the information accumulated, discussions and disgust increased over the obvious gaps in the legal system. One glaring gap? Whitmore had never been sentenced for a long enough period of time for the legal eagles to use the "dangerous offender" label. Consequently, he was let free over and over...................even though he admitted to fantasizing and ruminating while in prison.

Nothing is more reprehensible to me than pedophilia. Child molesters can't be rehabilitated. Research has shown this time and again, and yet our system continues to churn them back out into society unbeknownst to the community. There have been times when I have had to counsel these types in my office and it takes all my focus and fortitude to remain "professional" and not a raving lunatic raging mother of two children whom I would kill for. As much as I have never been a proponent of the death penalty, I struggle with this sick evil type of person who disgustingly perseverates on assaulting innocent children. These animals should be thrown into a dark pit and never let out. Peter Whitmore should never see the light of day again. He is a twisted sicko. NO argument could convince me that he deserves any attention or attempts at rehabilitation.

Let's hope Harper's government takes this incident very seriously and begins the process of filling the glaring gaps in our legal system. Once is too much. It should NEVER happen again.

Tonight, Zachary is back in the arms of his family, who are devasted and are all traumatized by the heinous experience. He will be able to sleep in his own bed, surrounded by a vigil of family who love him............parents who I'm sure wish they could wipe away the whole horrid incident and return the innocence back to their little boy. They have a long healing road to walk down. Zachary deserves the very best intervention our social and health service system can provide. Our legal system let him down in a way that is intolerable. We must try to make it up to him so that he can heal and really fall asleep in his own bed to dream 10 year old little boy dreams again.

He's lucky to be alive........................lets hope one day he feels a sense of joy again.

13 comments:

Bar L. said...

I hope he is able to put it behind him someday and, like you said, experience joy. I've written on my blog about a convicted pedophile that lives in my neighborhood with his wife and two young kids. It makes me sick to drive by his house every day. He is wealthy, attractive had a pretty wife and two cute kids and all the "toys" a man could want (boat, Harley, etc.) He goes free and lives a life of luxury - but what about the children he molested? Where is the justice? Sure his photo is on the Internet for all to see, but other than that...his live seems better than most :(
Sorry to go on - this is a touchy subject for many of us.

Rainbow dreams said...

Thank heavens Zachary is back safely with his family - having had to care for paedophiles in my work at times I know what you mean about the struggle at keeping "professional" - it's been said many times before, but if only lessons were really learned and true steps taken to protect others ~ so often it seems systems put in place supposedly to protect the vulnerable only seem to fail them

paris parfait said...

This is such a sad reminder of how fragile childhood is these days. When my daughter was a child in San Francisco, they had "anti-kidnap" drills and weren't allowed to leave school w/o the carer knowing a special password. It's so sad that children are no longer allowed to play w/o fear; to live carefree lives. Too many sick people in the world, leaving behind a path of pain and misery. Thank goodness Zachary is safe. But as your post so eloquently reveals, the emotional scars yet to be understood.

Scott said...

I can't agree with you more. That whole situation made me sick to my stomach. Hopefully with this particular guy they will sentence him huge for the kidnapping. It is ridiculous that a repeat offender like that gets to be out of prison ever. Hope that the laws get fixed to protect the kids.

Scott

Heather said...

I heard an interview last night with the farmer who followed a hunch and discovered the infamous van, which led to the whole case cracking open.
Guess it just goes to show that sometimes we do need to follow our gut. It can lead us to what can justly be called a miracle...

Leigh said...

This just sickens me. That poor boy will never be the same again. I love our country, but we really need to work on our justice system, it is failing terribly.

Canuckguy said...

Regarding Zachary and your comment "Once is too much. It should NEVER happen again"

Sorry but it will. You know that. The same thing was said about child abuse in NB by parents so severe that the child dies. We said that the system must be fixed after the Ryan(I believe that is his name) Turner case years ago, that it should not happen again. Yet it does. The last one being Julie-Ann. Remember her sad beautiful face on the Telegraph?

Michael K. Althouse said...

Death is too good. It says something when even the other dregs of society (murderer's, rapists, burglars, dope-pushers, pimps, etc) spit upon pedophiles. If he gets what bhe deserves, he'll find himself in their company with no escape. Fronteir justice from those who know how to dole it out...

Ellen said...

"Dateline NBC" has been doing undercover work with Perverted Justice and local sheriff departments around the states. They literally set up sting operations in order to catch the internet predators. Does this lessen the problem, sadly no. What it does is put a face to those people we thought we could trust: the Rabbis, teachers, and even a homeland security agent.

All will profess their sickness, say they need help, and all will say that this was their first time. Well, we already know the first is right... they are sick; and yes, they do need help. But there is no way we should be fooled into thinking that this is their first time. It's an obsession with them, and we may never know how many lives they have ruined before they are caught.

My nephew worked with a guy that was arrested on a sting. He was a Boy Scout Leader. Worse part, he was HIV+, knowingly so, yet still could not control his urges. His victims lives are totally ruined.

I applaud your professionalism in dealing with these types. Not much boils my blood, but this does, and I'm afraid I could not control my knife-weilding thoughts on a person who preys on children.

Does Canada have a network like we do in the states where pedophiles are required to register where they live? They also must not live or be at least within 100 yards of a school, playground or church play yard. Again, not that this helps a lot, but until we do something constructive to stop the problem altogether, it's all we have.

Personally I'd like to see them in a prison out in the desert, all castrated, and splitting rocks for a living. I'm just not very sympathetic to their sickness.

very funny word veri: prndib

awareness said...

From the comments (thank you to all) it is quite evident that we all feel the same thing......disgusted and sick.

Pedophiles, rapists and abusers live in all of our neighbourhoods. That's the scary fact, one that I learned personally when my next door neighbour was convicted of molesting his grandson, got 18 months and then moved home to his wife and family. I live in a neighbourhood that is middle class.......friendly neighbours, most of whom would do anything to make sure my kids were safe playing outdoors. It was a severe shock, more so I think because after working in an office when I could easily be counselling an ex-con with a serious track record, I had always felt that my street was a safe haven.
I kept a vigil on my kids whenever they were out playing, made sure in no uncertain terms were they to go near this pig, and I kept in touch with the probation officer (luckily I trained him and he was receptive to my enquiries etc :)).
Lesson learned..........one never knows who these vile pigs are.....

Childhood is fragile, however, I think it was just as fragile when we were young. I do remember announcements over the school PA system when I was young informing us that a mysterious car was sitting outside and to go straight home with a buddy etc. I also remember when a girl in my town was kidnapped (never to be seen again) and the whole town showed up for two days searching for her. I was 5.

Canuckguy....you're right.....I will never stop. I do remember Ryan Turner. I remember the little one in Saint John a couple of years later and Julie Ann's face. I also know that some never make it to the media......... it's true and it sickens me. Alison Parot in Toronto, on her way to a track meet? Remember that one? Awful The fact that an evil being like Clifford Olsen is even allowed a hearing to see if he is ready for probation? What a waste of money and time. Makes you question the Charter of Rigths, doesn't it.

Heather......Thank God for concerned citizens who do follow their instincts and get involved.

Ellen.....The Canadian system for registration is just getting underway and obviously the Provinces are not all working together.

Mike...........frontier justice? Damn fine idea.........I think if things don't change, we'll see more and more vigilantes taking over. Maybe it's time.

awareness said...

OH......BTW..........the Pedophile in my neighbourhood? He moved away last summer. Good friggin riddance!

OH.......BTW........his conviction and jail time occured just before the registry kicked into gear. No one is watching his movements.

The Harbour of Ourselves said...

I concur with everything that has been said and if someone messed with my kids i would deal out a kind of hell that has never been released before....the thing that i struggle with is that God still loves (and i hate the cliche loves the sinner hates the sin), but this fucks up my entire faith at times it really does.

am afraid i can never still love someone who put anyone like Zachary through what he has to live with the rest of his life. its a sickening part of the mystery of god and love and actually pisses me off

really good blog awareness

awareness said...

Harbour....
I couldn't agree with you more. The whole concept of God's forgiveness escapes me in situations like this. I don't want to believe in a God that would allow such a thing to happen, or who has created such evil monsters. It truly does test the faith.
Years ago, when I was working with children who were multi-handicapped, I often wondered why this occured, what the Big meaning was in all of that too. The road to understanding started with Harold Kushner's book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. It shed some light, but I'm afraid I've got a long way to go in truly grasping God's role in situations like this.

Thank you for the compliment re: my blog. Yours is truly enlightening. I'm glad I found it.