Saturday, August 27, 2011

There are no words . . .


I was infuriated to read, two years ago, of the arrest of Delaware pediatrician Earl Bradley in 2009 on literally hundreds of charges of child abuse. I've just learned that he's been sentenced to 14 life terms plus 164 years in prison, without the possibility of parole. Unfortunately, his state doesn't have the death penalty any longer . . . but for those of you who think he should die for his crimes, take heart. As a former prison chaplain, I can assure you that child abusers lead very 'interesting' lives behind bars (in the Chinese curse sense of the word), so I don't think Mr. Bradley will have an even remotely enjoyable life.

What I still can't understand is why it took so long to nail this man. He appears to have chosen to be a pediatrician precisely in order to have access to a large number of targets for his predation. He allegedly molested hundreds of children. How could he get away with abusing 103 victims before being uncovered and arrested? Surely someone must have noticed something?

Because the people around him, and the parents of those children, weren't on their guard, many more children suffered before he could be stopped. I hope that the lessons of their failure will be taught to more people in future, to stop further offenders like Mr. Bradley.

I don't believe in wishing evil on anyone, and I strive to follow the Master's teachings as best I may, in my poor fashion . . . but today, I haven't been able to stop myself thinking that if anyone should burn in hell for all eternity, Mr. Bradley's got a head start in the race for that 'honor'.





Peter

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The mental health professionals at B4UAct are cautioning against stigmatizing and stereotyping minor-attracted people. Apparently we just don't understand them.
(This, apparently, is for real.)
MichigammeDave