Letter to Santa leads to arrest

[RiverWalk]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/Letter_to_Santa_leads_to_mans_arrest.html

PHARR — A 9-year-old girl’s letter to Santa Claus asking that a relative stop touching her and her sister has led to the arrest of a 55-year-old Pharr man on charges of continuous sexual abuse of a young child, according to a newspaper report.

[RiverWalk]

It was their step-dad. :(

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/state/Santa_wish_ends_in_sex_abuse_charges_against_stepd ad.html

Police charged Andres Enrique Cantu with two counts of continued sexual abuse of a child after the girls described abuse — one in a holiday wish list assigned as a writing assignment by her elementary school teacher.

Thank GOD Texas has Jessica's Law.

[i4doors]

that was so brave of that little girl....i hope they are able to get help and lead normal lives....:sad:

[RiverWalk]

that was so brave of that little girl....i hope they are able to get help and lead normal lives....:sad:

Very brave and the teacher and school counselor too. They all did the right thing. I hope their lives improve, in time. Odd that the mother hasn't been mentioned?

[Details]

I'm sure the mother is getting looked at very closely. He sounds like a traditional pedophile - find a single mother with kids of his favored type, marry her, get jobs that involve access to kids - it's the normal pattern. In that normal pattern, sometimes the wife knows, but puts up with it to keep the man, other times they have no clue, and the kids are sufficiently threatened to not talk.

[LisaM22]

wow, santa came though on that wish :rose:

[RiverWalk]

From the local paper. Picture of the creep and there is a video to see to the right.

http://www.themonitor.com/articles/cantu_21044___article.html/abuse_sexual.html

[RiverWalk]

RE: Jessica's Law in Texas. Texas has enhanced this law:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4745929.html

Also from CNN:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0812/16/cnr.07.html

This makes absolutely no sense to me:

HOLEYWELL: We haven't been able to track down the family, but from the police investigators that I have been talking to, sounds like no other family members are going to be facing any sort of charges, because it doesn't seem like they had any idea that this was going on.

SANCHEZ: Was he living -- Ryan, was he living at the house? Is that how he was pulling it off? Or allegedly pulling it off?

HOLEYWELL: Well, the investigators I talked to today said it doesn't seem like at least right now he has not been living at the house most recently.

SANCHEZ: But somehow he would find his way into allegedly the bedroom in the night?

HOLEYWELL: Yes.

SANCHEZ: It does make you wonder how he was able to do that and maybe a lot of people living at the house at the time.

HOLEYWELL: Right. Who knows?

[Amy]

From the local paper. Picture of the creep and there is a video to see to the right.

http://www.themonitor.com/articles/cantu_21044___article.html/abuse_sexual.html

Up to 198 years---now, that sounds about right. With NO early parole. @ some point, the courts need to face up to the fact that pediophiles do NOT change--they need to read the stats on this crime like they do on other things. Being on a sexual predator list, "requiring" that they do not live or go near children, etc does NOT protect anyone. The only way to be sure the pediophile does not strike again is to not let him/her out of prison until such time s/he leaves in the proverbial pine box.

Sure hope the girls get the help needed. Kudos to the little girl for writing her wish where it could be acted on, and for the teachers doing their jobs of protecting the children. Wonder how many other kids might come forward w/accusations of this monster touching them? That would certainly tip the scales toward the 198 years, I would imagine.

[JD1974]

I got the chills reading that, how sad that this little girl had to turn to Santa for help...as I was reading I couldn't help but think about the letter my 8 year old daughter wrote, she asked for a bike and a video game. For some reason this one just hit me really hard. I am so glad Santa gave her what she wanted for Christmas, he works in mysterious ways...brave little one!




ETA I wonder If anyone reads the thousands, probably millions of letters Santa recieves or if they just get an auto response, maybe they should look into having someone read the ones that come into each local post office, who knows how many other kids are out there begging Santa to help them? I would volunteer in a hearbeat!

[Amy]

I don't know where they go for each post office, but in some places, there are volunteers who read the letters. Have read articles about this. I don't know if the postal system has something set up where all are forward to various and sundry places, or if it is all just left up to the individual post offices.

[RiverWalk]

YES most post offices welcome volunteers to answer letters and not just to Santa. Sometimes you can be a very, very special angel.

http://www.snopes.com/glurge/abbey.asp