commentary by Patrick H. Moore
One of the peculiar (and deeply disturbing) things about pedophiles (and child molesters in general) is that – unlike many serial killers who typically work alone – many child sex offenders revel in sharing their horrifying escapades with each other anecdotally on “chat rooms”. They also eagerly share images of child pornography, and in the worst cases, engage in group molestations.
Law enforcement is well aware of this which has resulted in many dozens (if not hundreds) of FBI agents nationally “going underground” working the chat rooms where the sex offenders get together to titillate each other with their horrific tales and fantasies. In a sense, these grotesquely immature adults, who clearly suffer from some form of seriously arrested development, are not unlike children “egging each other on” to do increasingly bad things.
Thus, the Federal agent who “works the chat rooms” starts corresponding with pedophiles and/or molesters. The agent will sometimes describe an alleged fantasy of his own and will then wait to see who takes the bait. Once someone “bites”, the agent will play along before ultimately suggesting that the two of them get together to buy, sell or share a child. Part of the “rush of pleasure” for many molesters seems to be having partners in crime to “share the spoils”.
Thus, the agent’s job is, in a sense, not unlike the job of an undercover DEA agent with a few critical differences. First, the DEA agent is trying to catch drug traffickers while the “sex agent” is trying to catch child sex offenders.
In setting up their “sting operations”, DEA agents are notorious for sometimes trying to convince small-time drug dealers to engage in larger and larger transactions so that when “the hammer comes down”, the amount of drugs in question will result in very long prison sentences. I’ve been involved in several cases of this nature where small-time dealers are transformed into real live drug traffickers by resourceful agents who keep raising the ante.
The key difference, I think, in cases where “sex agents” entrap child molesters is that if the agent didn’t “catch the fish” by setting him up, the “fish” might eventually get to that point on his own or in association with other molesters/pedophiles. The reason for this is that unnatural sexual desires take on many of the qualities that are commonly associated with addiction. As time passes, the addict needs greater and greater “kicks”, which, in the case of sex offenses, translates into doing increasingly horrible things to the child victims; for example, a collector of child pornography might “graduate” to hands-on child sex offenses
Therefore, it is certainly possible that every time a “sex agent” puts a child sex offender out of business, he may well be saving one or more potential child victims from a fate worse than death. This contrasts with the DEA agent who often entraps formerly small time dealers into engaging in large-scale drug transactions that he/she would otherwise have never considered.
In a truly awful child sex case that led to a 60-year term of imprisonment in U.S. Federal Court in Florida on Friday, the perpetrator, a certain William Edward Osman, seems to have needed no encouragement from “sex agents”. In fact, it would have saved a baby from indescribable anguish if an agent had managed to entrap Osman before he committed his offenses.
This case also clearly reveals the child sex offender’s predilection for sharing his dirty deeds with others of similar inclination.
Kevin P. Connolly of the Orlando Sentinel writes:
An Orlando man who sexually abused a tot and fantasized about having a “baby orgy” with another Central Florida man was sentenced to 60 years in federal prison for child pornography, agents say.
William Edward Osman, 34, will serve a lifetime of supervised release and register as a sex offender if he leaves prison.
Osman, who pleaded guilty in February to the production, distribution, and possession of child pornography, was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Court Judge John Antoon, II.
According to the case records, in order to produce the child pornography, Osman began sexually abusing a 1-year-old child in December 2012, and used his cellphone to document the attacks.
The “birds of a twisted feather syndrome” kicked in nine months later in September 2013, when Osman traded some of those images with another man, Michael Glascock of Merritt Island.
“The two met when the Brevard County man responded to a personal ad Osman had placed on Craigslist,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
That’s when they shared their mutual interest in a “baby orgy”, federal agents said.
Fortunately, the “baby orgy” never took place because the two child sex offenders had scheduling conflicts that kept them from acting out their horrific fantasy.
Glascock, 39, pleaded guilty last month to one count of using a minor to produce images depicting child pornography and one count of attempting to induce a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity. He faces up to life in Federal prison and will receive, I imagine a sentence of anywhere from 40 to 60 years.
Although the U.S. Attorney’s Office has not revealed how the sex agents discovered the nefarious deeds of either of these two men, it is known that agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations searched Osman’s home in October of 2013 after obtaining a warrant.
At the time of the search, the agents found the images Osman had produced with the 1-year-old baby and images of Glascock molesting a different child. In addition, the investigators “found 194 movies and 588 images of child pornography on Osman’s media storage devices.”
“Most of the movies and images depicted prepubescent children and/or sadomasochistic conduct.”
In Federal criminal parlance, images “depicting prepubescent children and/or sadomasochistic conduct” often translates into pictures of grown men sexually penetrating very young children. In the world of serious violent crime, there is “bad” and there is “worse” and there is “the worst of all.”