Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'Adam Walsh Act'.
-
I saw a very disturbing story on the local news this evening. A 68 yr old man from Danville, NH by the name of Harold Baird was arrested and charged with sexual abuse of a minor. The man was a convicted sex offender who had had to register with local authorities after he was released from jail, and apparently many people in the community knew about him. But he found a Chinese woman online and apparently went thru the same process we are all going through, and not long ago his wife and her 5 year old daughter came here and began living with him. Neighbors said neither of them could speak much English I believe it was this morning that she caught him in the act of sexually assaulting her 5 yr old daughter. Not knowing what to do, she went to a neighbor's house and managed to explain to them what had happened, and they called the police. He is now being held in the county jail, where he will stay until his trial, unless he raises $100,000 bail. Police speculated that he may have chosen the woman because she had a young daughter, and perhaps he thought they would be unwilling or unable to protect themselves because of the language barrier and the visa situation. I'm not sure what will happen to them now... Obviously they will be kept here until the trial as witnesses, and hopefully the girl can get some counseling in the meantime. But as far as whether they will be able to stay (if they still want to) I don't know. I just fel very bad for them, after so many months of waiting and dreaming how wonderful their new life in America would be...and then this. I feel very strongly that most of the people on CFL and good, kind, decent people who truly love their souses or fiancees, but it scares me that situations like this can happen, where people are marrying people who they don't really know. And they know nothing about the person's background other than what that person wants them to know. Obviously, no woman with a 5 year old daughter would marry a man who had been convicted and jailed for sexual assault on a minor, but there was no way for her to know about that. It's very upsetting. As a practical matter, thoguh, I don't know what women can do to find out about the man's background. I told Ying I'd be glad to get her letters from my mminister, the chief of police in my town, etc., but she aid she's not worried. It's strange that this woman had to submit a certificate from the police showing that she had no criminal record and was therefore allowed to go with her 5 yr old daughter into the clutches of that man...
