Disney Abuse Girl Found

May 13, 2005 5:48 PM

Girl in Disney abuse photos found safe Previously discussed on Metafilter here and here. Maybe it sounds crazy but I was really relieved that she's ok.
posted by billysumday (51 comments total)

Great to hear her abuser is locked up already. I feared the worst when I heard about the story -- that he was free and she was dead.

It'll be interesting to see how law enforcement uses the internet to help them solve crimes like this. Kind of reminds me of open source bug reporting, letting the public help with clues and whatnot.
posted by mathowie at 5:56 PM on May 13, 2005

No, it doesn't sound crazy. Me too.
posted by exlotuseater at 5:56 PM on May 13, 2005

Good news. Let's hope they get the girl some help.
posted by jonmc at 6:03 PM on May 13, 2005

excellent. and what jon said--she's going to need it.
posted by amberglow at 6:05 PM on May 13, 2005

Maybe now we can send champagne for the task force to celebrate her safe recovery/discovery.
posted by macadamiaranch at 6:23 PM on May 13, 2005

Caring isn't crazy (or creepy). Count me in on whatever people agree is the best way to thank these guys.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 6:24 PM on May 13, 2005

Or Leafs Tickets. Or a donation to a police charity of their choice. Regardless of debates about the efficacy of their approach, the work that squad does has to take a toll, so I imagine any tokens of appreciation would be good for them.
posted by jonmc at 6:26 PM on May 13, 2005

Yep. Still organizing something suitably fabulous for the work these guys and gals do. I'm working on somethign that could be very cool indeed.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 6:29 PM on May 13, 2005

Any place we can follow plans to join in on this. I'd hate to miss out on some civic love.
posted by absalom at 6:46 PM on May 13, 2005

Thank god.

I mean, rhetorically, of course. But good news.
posted by jokeefe at 6:46 PM on May 13, 2005

I am a classic liberal when it comes to most all crimes (treatment as opposed to punishment) but on child abuse, I am a lock the fuckers away and throw away the key. Sadly, this was done by someone who was trusted to adopt a child. In cases like this, I'd love to beat the ever loving shit out of the perp.
posted by ranchocalamari at 6:51 PM on May 13, 2005

fundable.org?
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 6:51 PM on May 13, 2005

That's great news and thanks for posting it.

Even better he's got fifteen years to think about his actions (and they won't be pleasant years, if he survives at all) with more charges pending.
posted by cedar at 7:20 PM on May 13, 2005

Damn good news. Thanks for the update.
posted by Cyrano at 7:33 PM on May 13, 2005

Great news. Thanks for posting.
posted by cows of industry at 7:47 PM on May 13, 2005

Is the interweb responsible for the connection? I can't tell from the story.
posted by sacre_bleu at 7:47 PM on May 13, 2005

the guy was busted for trading child porn online, so presumably, the interweb was involved, although they don't flesh that point out anymore.
posted by puke & cry at 7:56 PM on May 13, 2005

I'm glad to hear she's physically okay.

With any luck, one day she'll mentally get over the things she's suffered, as well.

DNAB, drop me an email if there's anything I can do to help with the gift you're working on. I'd even break my rule about 'please god, let me never see another cop again' from the February incidents...
posted by jacquilynne at 7:57 PM on May 13, 2005

Glad this one had a reasonably happy ending, but anyone else's heart sink when they read that the poor kid had been adopted from Russia at the age of 5 (God only knows what abuse or neglect she had been exposed to there) and has been in at least 2 U.S. foster homes in the 6 years since, in addition to being terribly sexually exploited? If there is a hell, its inner circle is for those who prey on the weakest and most vulnerable members of society.
posted by availablelight at 8:20 PM on May 13, 2005

Glad this one had a reasonably happy ending, but anyone else's heart sink when they read that the poor kid had been adopted from Russia at the age of 5 (God only knows what abuse or neglect she had been exposed to there)

availablelight, maybe i'm misunderstanding you, but are you saying that because she was adopted from Russia she necessarily had been abused or neglected?
posted by ramix at 8:57 PM on May 13, 2005

I think availablelight's point was that there seems to be an added horror (to an already horrific story) that the child appears to have been adopted from Russia (where she was probably already neglected, given the state of orphanages over there) for the express purpose of being abused.

And I, too, felt a visceral sense of relief when I heard the child was alive and apparently safe now.
posted by scody at 9:15 PM on May 13, 2005

Thank God. I hope the sicko that egghhhh, may have potentially warped this child for the rest of her life enjoys the penal systems own way of dealing with child molesters. Don't know what else to say. Flat out ill.
posted by buzzman at 9:47 PM on May 13, 2005

Yeah, scody, that's the thing. She was essentially bought/adopted at age five for the purpose of being used as a body in child porn. And I have no doubt that she is far from the only one. A special circle of hell reserved for such people, indeed.
posted by jokeefe at 10:13 PM on May 13, 2005

[this is goodgoodgoodgoodgood]
posted by Guy Smiley at 11:32 PM on May 13, 2005

...yes, the state of orphanages (even those staffed by kindhearted folks, who are nonetheless understaffed and underfunded) in Russia and the former USSR is still abysmal by modern Western standards. And the adoption process there has recently been "tightened up", but it used to be shamefully easy for unknown foreigners to adopt there. I'm sure for an older child who would have been harder to place...... ugh. I shouldn't have to explain further. I hope there is adequate follow-up for her, in terms of compassion and attention (beyond basic social services she is getting through foster care).
posted by availablelight at 12:36 AM on May 14, 2005

...also--much like in the US foster care system--very few of the kids in Russian orphanages are there because both parents tragically perished in freak accidents, etc. Especially in rural areas, children end up there because their families are crippled by alcoholism, poverty, or other types of dysfunction and they have either had the child taken away from them due to abuse or neglect, or they have abandoned the child outright.
posted by availablelight at 12:42 AM on May 14, 2005

The Lost Boys - 300 of them. And nobody knows how many girls.
posted by TimothyMason at 12:52 AM on May 14, 2005

Still organizing something suitably fabulous for the work these guys and gals do.

They already get something suitably fabulous. It's called a salary.

(yes, I know, underpaid. So are nurses, firemen...)
posted by justgary at 1:22 AM on May 14, 2005

What's your point, justgary? It sounds like you think that because we can't recognize everyone who provides a public service for a woefully inadequate salary that we shouldn't recognize anyone. These Toronto cops are doing some nasty work with very little public recognition and they deserve a pat on the back (I don't think anyone is talking about handing them fistfuls of cash). I'm not sure you have an appreciation of the toll swimming in filth day after day can take on one.

Also, where I'm from, we have no paid firefighters. We do it ourselves, in no small part due to the communities generosity (and sense of self-preservation) and some nurses are quite well paid. My sister, who is probably better qualified than many other nurses, enjoys a better lifestyle and more disposable income than the doctors she works with.
posted by cedar at 5:23 AM on May 14, 2005

justgary=unbelievable
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 6:20 AM on May 14, 2005

Thank you for posting this, reading those other threads made me heartsick. I am enormously glad she's safe, and hopefully on the road to recovery. The folks who found her deserve every accolade they recieve, and more.
posted by nelleish at 8:38 AM on May 14, 2005

They already get something suitably fabulous. It's called a salary.

No salary in the world can possibly recompense for the sheer number of atrocities these people have to see on a daily basis. They hunt down the monsters that prey on the weakest and most defenceless members of society, and have to see absolutely horrific pictures and evidence of child abuse every fucking day.

Don't you think, perhaps, that getting some sort of personal recognition from the rest of the world might go a long way towards ameliorating the alienation and despair that they most likely feel? A paycheque is a great thing, sure, but don't you feel a certain sense of accomplishment when someone thanks you for doing a good job?
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 9:11 AM on May 14, 2005

Wonderful news!

Also, what cedar said.
posted by theFlyingSquirrel at 9:20 AM on May 14, 2005

They already get something suitably fabulous. It's called a salary.

And of course the grateful appreciation of good citizens like justgary.
posted by jonmc at 9:23 AM on May 14, 2005

Huzzah!
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 10:34 AM on May 14, 2005

(I've been worried about this poor girl)
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 10:34 AM on May 14, 2005

Once again, for some here, good is the enemy of perfect.

I hope this kid, and others like her, come out ok. I hope the man that did this to her, and others like him, burn in hell.
posted by Snyder at 11:35 AM on May 14, 2005

This is certainly one of those rare situations that end, relatively, positive; the girl was found alive and the bastard will rot. On another positive note--he won't have it well in prison. Child abusers get the worst of the abuse in that strange hierarchy decided by prisoners.
posted by codeofconduct at 11:43 AM on May 14, 2005

Maybe get 'em a trip to Disneyworld?

No. Kidding. I am incredibly happy that this girl is safe and that her abuser seems to have been locked up.
(Maybe justgary isn't familiar with doing anything that benefits the public enough for them to thank him for it...)
posted by klangklangston at 12:06 PM on May 14, 2005

So in other words the guy had already been caught two years ago and this whole thing was simply a huge waste of time.
posted by delmoi at 3:38 PM on May 14, 2005

this whole thing was simply a huge waste of time.

Wow. What a crappy way to distort what just happened. The Toronto cops had no idea the girl was safe, and were doing all they could to find her. The fact that the photos had been taken by someone who'd already been caught for child pornography hardly makes that episode "simply a huge waste of time."

You know, delmoi, sometimes the right thing to do is stay out of a thread whey you're feeling like being a cynical fuck.
posted by mediareport at 5:19 PM on May 14, 2005

So in other words the guy had already been caught two years ago and this whole thing was simply a huge waste of time.

Y'know, there may indeed be legitimate reasons to criticize police activities and investigations, but not having ESP isn't among them.

Ass.
posted by scody at 5:39 PM on May 14, 2005

That's great, scody and mediareport. People upthread are gleeful about the violent sodomy that awaits the perp, and you decide to call out delmoi for exposing the futility and waste of the whole operation?

Enjoy your righteousness.
posted by Kwantsar at 7:56 PM on May 14, 2005

exposing the futility and waste of the whole operation

Yeah, nice hindsight there, Kwantsar. The Toronto cops tried an interesting new tactic that - lo and behold - seems to have produced the desired result. Calling that "simply a huge waste of time" is pissing on their work for no good reason, and I felt like calling bullshit on it. Oh, and I don't have to answer to you for caring more about that than some folks' lame assfuck prison revenge fantasies.
posted by mediareport at 9:16 PM on May 14, 2005

Excuse me, Kwantsar: "Futility and waste"? You are stating that it was futile and wasteful to determine that a young girl was not, in fact, any longer being held against her will, molested, raped, and photographed for other pedophiles to masturbate to? To determine that she hadn't actually been killed, even? Are you serious? Because if you are, you're essentially saying that officials ought not to have bothered -- because apparently you (and delmoi) believe they should have known -- somehow! magically! -- beforehand that she was actually okay! Which is, of course, fucking absurd.

And the fact that you want to paint mediareport and me as the assholes in this thread because we didn't explicitly condemn prison rape fantasies is just fucking rich. (Not to mention ironic, at least in my case -- because if you'd ever paid attention to my comments in threads relating to crime and prison in the past, you would have found out that I've actually been an activist around prisoners' rights issues, including the right not to be sexually assaulted -- but, y'know don't let the facts get in the way of your presumptions about me or anything.) Because we actually think that it wasn't a waste of time and resources to determine that said child was indeed safe, and that the perpetrator was also not molesting, raping, and photographing other children -- yeah, what smug fucks we are for thinking that's a good thing.

But above all, you can't mean to imply that the only way the investigation would not have been "futile" and "wasteful" would have been if the girl was still being molested and raped (or had even been killed), right? Because that's what it certainly sounds like you and delmoi are saying: if it's "wasteful" to find out that she's now okay, then the "non-wasteful" outcome would have been one in which she was still being molested or was dead. Surely you can't possibly be either that cynical or that sick.
posted by scody at 12:10 AM on May 15, 2005

It was not a 'huge waste of time' in other ways, as well. It's my impression that his existing child porn charges were for possessions and trafficking in the stuff, not necessarily for making it. The 15 years he's supposed to be in jail should be extended to 'until hell freezes over' by the addition of these charges.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:36 AM on May 15, 2005

And I, for one, look gleefully forward to the revenge that will be wrought on this twisted, depraved freak! Justice will prevail, in prison--I don't mind fanasizing about that.
posted by codeofconduct at 3:21 PM on May 15, 2005

I for one gleefully look forward to the child getting the proper care and the help she needs and her living an unexploited life. Why does it matter what happens to the perpetrator other than he has been brought to justice? Let it go. Fixating on it just perpetuates the - for lack of a better term - bad vibes. God bless the child and let her be happy the rest of her life. The hell with anything else. I mean she's the whole point after all.
posted by Smedleyman at 1:48 PM on May 16, 2005

There is no hell except for the one here on earth, that humans create for each other. For better or worse that is all we get.

I am glad the kid is rescued and I wish good luck to whoever has the thankless task of apologizing to her for what the world has done to her.
posted by Divine_Wino at 7:50 AM on May 17, 2005

This is great news for her, I hope the guy has a short life behind bars before someone gibs him for being the scumbag he is.
posted by fenriq at 9:38 AM on May 17, 2005

And of course the grateful appreciation of good citizens like justgary.
posted by jonmc

So I have to donate money to these officers to be a good citizen jon? That's the only way to show appreciation? A 'job well done" isn't good enough for people doing their job?

Thankfully, your opinion on my being a good citizen or not holds almost as much weight as your hatred of hipsters. You are, as always, entertaining however.

(Maybe justgary isn't familiar with doing anything that benefits the public enough for them to thank him for it...)
posted by klangklangston

Maybe klangklangston isn't familiar with underpaid teachers, firefighters, nurses... who do their jobs everyday with little thanks.

Perhaps you know nothing about me. Perhaps you're speaking from ignorance (actually, I take back the last perhaps).
posted by justgary at 8:45 PM on May 19, 2005