A Vienna man pleaded guilty last month
in Page County Circuit Court to sexually abusing six young Fairfax County
girls at his weekend retreat near the Blue Ridge Mountains between June
1983 and May 1985.
World Bank Engineer XXX, 47, pleaded
guilty on Sept. 19 to nine counts of aggravated sexual battery.
Other possible charges will not be
pursued by either Fairfax County or Page County prosecutors, according
to a plea-bargain agreement filed in Page County Circuit Court.
XXX is free on $20,000 bond until
his Nov. 18 sentencing before Judge Joshua L. Robinson in Luray, the Page
county seat. A World Bank spokesman said that the British-born water
supply expert has taken leave from his job.
XXX's attorney, Linda. J. Ravdin,
declined comment on why her client changed his original plea of not guilty
to guilty. She said XXX, whose address is listed as the 1700 block
of Palm Springs Drive, is seeking psychiatric help.
The two-year saga of sexual abuse
at the renovated barn on 15 grassy acres near Luray began to unravel in
June of this year when one of the victims saw a puppet show at the church
she attends called "The Kids on the Block."
The show's characters urge children
to tell someone if they have been sexually abused. After the show,
the girl told friends and a teacher what happened to her, according to
a Virginia State Police document. State police handled the investigation
because it crossed county lines.
Page County commonwealth's attorney
John T. Hennessy said that an investigation was launched after a complaint
was made to the Fairfax County Department of Social Services. At
least three of the girls involved are between the ages 10 and 12.
When state police searched the barn
last June, officers found "one guest register containing the names of juvenile
females who were the victims of sexual battery," said the affidavit for
the search warrant filed in Page County.
Hennessy said he was pleased with
the plea-bargain agreement because "we did not have to put them (the children)
on the stand and have them testify about these tragic events in their very
young lives."
He declined comment on what sort of
sentence he would request for XXX.
Fairfax County agreed to the plea
bargain partly because it was unlikely that XXX would receive an additional
sentence if convicted of further charges in Fairfax County, said Corrine
Magee, assistant Fairfax County commonwealth's attorney.
In addition, she said, one of the
victims of abuse said to have occurred in Fairfax County was reluctant
to testify.
Two of the parents of abuse victims
declined comment. However, the mother of the grade-schooler who saw
the puppet show agreed to be interviewed because she said she wants to
alert parents to the warning signs of sexual abuse.
The girl's mother said she was struck
by how unusual it was that XXX, rather than his wife, would call to make
arrangements for the weekend trips.
The woman said she told her daughter
that what happened was not her fault, and that she still had power to influence
the way the case would turn out by telling the police everything.
She praised state police and social
workers for their sensitivity in handling the investigation.
As for XXX, the woman said she does
not strongly want to see him go to jail, but "I wish for him never to be
in a position where he could ever do this again."
The following article is taken from The Catoosa County
News of Ringgold, Georgia.
XXX Is Arrested For Child Molestation
XXX, 65, of Ringgold, a former auxiliary
policeman who at times rode around with Catoosa County Sheriff's deputies
as an interested citizen was arrested Thursday and charged with three counts
of child molestation. XXX posted bond Friday at 6 p.m. with a certified
check and was released.
The arrest stemmed from a three-day
investigation by the Sheriff's Department following three different students
at Graysville Elementary School's informing on a man "for touching their
private parts" following a school program entitled "Kids on the Block,"
which was presented to third, fourth, and fifth graders at Graysville Elementary
School on Monday, February 4 by ABC Educational Programs Co. of Chattanooga.
The program is presented through three
different sets of puppets, in which the topics of...physical abuse of children
and sexual abuse is covered at length by the puppeteers.
"The puppets tell the children it's
all right to say no to other children or even adults when it comes to touching
their private parts," Superintendent Charles Lindsey stated. "We
want the children to know it's okay to tell someone, even if another adult
is involved."
"Apparently, three of the children
who saw the program recognized the symptoms of sexual abuse, and reported
the crimes to their parents," Mr. Lindsey stated. "Their parents,
in turn, notified the sheriff's department, and an investigation was begun.
The victims were ages seven through
10.
Mr. Lindsey noted that the puppet
program, "Kids on the Block," is available to other individual schools
in the Catoosa County school system, or all of them, in turn...