Dear Pedophile

You were a husband and a father. Trusted and adored by me and by our children. You betrayed and took advantage of us, leaving behind broken hearts and damaged spirits. Your actions stole things from my daughter that she can never replenish. She was robbed of her childhood and innocence and is reminded on a daily basis of the unthinkably horrible acts you committed. She was and is a just child. Children are to be loved and nurtured in a way that brings comfort and a feeling of safety. You betrayed her and showed her a world of hurt, loneliness, lies and deceit. You brought her into your sinister sickness and, thus, opened a darkness in her that will forever remain. And, for that, you will be punished. Not only by our earthly justice system, but also by the heavenly judge. 1

It is my obligation as a mother to guard and protect my children from the cold world outside of my home. Little did I know that the world inside my home was what I should have been protecting them from. A child should feel safe in their own home and my daughter was not. There were no monsters under the bed or ghosts in the closet-there was a wolf in sheep’s clothing lurking in the shadows. You presented yourself as a typical husband and father, but harbored a deep dark secret that you chose to share with a child. You hid this from everyone, including me. If you were able to hide such a massive secret from the people that knew you best, what makes you think that you can be trusted NOW? Sure you may say that you would never commit such an act again and you may even believe yourself, but the truth is that you are a very sick man who cannot be trusted. You are obviously a master of deceit and can fool even the most skeptical audience. You will not fool me again and you cannot fool the people in this room. You are a pedophile and a predator. You preyed upon the most vulnerable target and she was unable to fight back. Then, you went in for the kill. 2

I can honestly say that I don’t know if those wounds and scars will ever fully heal. My child has shown me resiliency and drive and that is where these words are coming from. I really struggled with the decision to speak to you in court today. When it comes down to it, you needed to hear this. You need to know what you have done to my child and to all of the people that love her. You need to know that your earthquake caused massive destruction and continues to spawn aftershock. You need to hear that although my child is resilient, she has struggled and will probably struggle for her entire life. All because you exercised poor judgement and a complete lack of self-control. You have always had a way of making people pity you to make your actions seem as though they are a product of a rough childhood or just bad luck. But the truth is, that you are responsible for your own actions and you should take what is coming your way today, because it is a direct consequence of a compilation of decisions you chose to make.