Nintendo DSi sends child abuser to the slammer A paedophile has been jailed after his victim used her Nintendo DSi to covertly photograph his assault. John Fisher, 46, confessed to his crime after being arrested by police and shown the images taken by the girl, who is too young to name. She used her handheld games console to snap a picture of the paedophile's hand groping …
..little girl. excellent presence of mind. I can't imagine just how many episodes like this go unrecorded simply because the level of assault may be deemed not serious enough to investigate without good proof. I know of a few occasions of when I was young and a certain teacher at my school seemed to have a reputation for suchness. It is doubtless (in my mind) that today this kind of person would be caught out pretty rapidly.
what wherewithal from that girl. well done!
If you RTFA, you'll notice that this is the second time it happened. The first time it happened, she told her mum (as you should), and her family did nothing about it.
It's not unknown for kids to fall apart if their family won't back them up on something like htis. So good on the girl for having the smarts and mental resilience to get the photo and then say "OK mum, laugh this one off you bitch".
Sadly I know of a case similar to this, where the girl told her parents about her Grandad abusing her and they refused to believe her, and only after he did the same thing to her sister did anyone listen, and still one parent refused to believe it, now naive do some people have to be FFS!
Surprised he was allowed Defence Lawyers, that makes me sick, the picture should be enough, you can't defend against that, and saying he had a learning disability is no excuse for that kind of action, 3.5 years is no where near enough and what are they going to do upon his release, any rehabilitation? Probably not, just let loose to do it to some other poor soul.
Think Clarkson had the right idea! Bring back capital punishment!
quote: "Surprised he was allowed Defence Lawyers, that makes me sick"
I understand the revulsion you are feeling for this obviously disturbed individual, however we still pay token lip-service to "innocent until proven guilty" here in the UK. I assume you did not intend to suggest that an innocent man should be denied representation in a court of law? Using those criteria, a few photoshopped images of anyone would be enough to get them convicted, since they would not be able to employ any experts to represent them, and refute the photographs as being tampered with :)
Also from the Times article: "Fisher who is married with a daughter and grandchildren at first denied assaulting the girl. But he admitted it when police confronted with the photograph. Detectives were able to prove the image was of him as it showed features of his hand and items of his clothing even though it did not reveal his face. " (emphasis mine)
So I would argue that the picture on its own should not really be considered enough, given that it was only a hand and some clothing. His confession is what really sealed the conviction in this case..
Not wishing to comment on the merits of this case, you'd be surprised how many students threaten to call social services on teachers because they have been disciplined in some way, knowing a mere accusation can end a career.
And no, a digital photo does not stand on its own, nor should it.
Sounds familiar, my ex who died september '08 from secondary cervical cancer - caused by a grandparent abusing her was in the same situation. Ironically she kinda consented to what happened to protect her sister. Hearing that was about the time I gave up on there being such a thing as any kind of God.
Her family, other than her sister, wouldn't and wont countenance it ever happened. Mind you these are the same people that had my ex's sister committed after she emotionally fell apart...
Families are wonderful things, I think there should be a written exam before some people are allowed to breed.
Kudos to the DSi girl for coming up with a good idea - as to a shutter sound she probably knew enough to disable that aforethought - we dont give kids enough credit in this country.
As to the 'perp - dont ya just love 'care in the community' *sigh*
I seem to recall there was a bit of alarm raised about kids having this sort of device and how parents might not be aware that they had both internet connectivity and cameras. This combination was apparently regarded virtual welcome mat for sexual predators.
The irony would have been perfect, had she also used the DSi to report the assault via email or something, but oh well.
Thumbs up for that quick-thinking girl.
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