LATTER DAY SLEAZEBAG

I want to talk about a ‘high-standing’ member of a church.  A man devoted to his church, devoted to his wife, devoted to his family and his grandchildren.

A pillar of society, obviously. His name is Joseph Atwater and his church is  the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

But amidst all these accolades Atwater is also a pervert. A predator. Stealthily working on the corruption of young kids he met through the church.. He exposed his erect penis to a 13-year-old girl. Gives a whole new meaning to the ‘church organ’ doesn’t it.

He illegally took her 15-year-old brother out of school for the day and showed both children pornographic sketches and computer images.

And it gets worse. Fifty-three-year-old Atwater, who still has the support of the church hierarchy, sneaked into the teenagers’ house late at night – without their parents’ knowledge – and entered the bedrooms of their even younger siblings. Maybe looking for more recruits.

He gave the teenage girl a condom out of his wallet. Sent her text messages trying to lure her to his house and e-mailed her on an Internet chat room with descriptions about the ways he liked to make love to his wife. He drew pictures of men and women having sex and when finally confronted by Police he said he was ‘merely educating him in respect to sexual matters’.

So keen to educate him he sneaked into the kid’s bedroom late at night.

And what angers me about all this apart from the fact that  County Court Judge  Jane Campton gave him a totally suspended jail sentence is that Atwater has still not owned up to his perverted behaviour. His real motives. And neither has the church. I hope they’re supporting the victims as strongly as they are supporting the stalker.

A psychiatrist reported Atwater was a ‘low risk’ of re-offending. How does he know? How does he know it’s the first time? All we know is it’s the first time he’s been caught.

And the psychiatrist characterised Atwater’s crimes as being ‘a misguided, uncharacteristic lapse of judgement’. This ‘lapse’ went on for months.

According to the dictionary a lapse is ‘a slip’.  And Atwater slipped up when the children’s mother found three sexually explicit drawings in the laundry.

Atwater’s deviate behaviour obviously had a drastic effect one her family and she described it  as ‘ a soul-destroying experience’.

Speaking of dictionaries ‘lapse’ also means ‘to fall from the faith’ and ‘to fail in virtue or duty’.

This sleazebag, Joseph Carlton Atwater, did that in spades.

Friday, November 16, 2007

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2007