Cruise Bruise Blog
October 16, 2009
October 16, 2009
Court Adds Meaningless DNA Condition To Crew Member Release From Prison
It has been said that I am unnaturally obsessed with sex offenders, as if that is a bad thing. When it comes to violent sex crimes and sex crimes involving children, somebody certainly needs to be obsessed with preventing these acts through public information. I am just one of many who work towards that goal. It troubles me that some people find my goals troublesome.
It worries me when visitors contact me to tell me how their family member, convicted of a sex crime that involved children, is such a good man, would never hurt a child, and yet the man plead guilty to the sex crime. It worries me because I know there are people who know this man and his crimes, and still they can label him " a good man". These emails are normally laced with hatred and sometimes threats toward me and the articles I publish. I expect this. What I don't expect are family members contacting me in an effort to seek my assistance.
Never once has a family member contacted me, until now, wanting answers about a sex offender relative and his crime. It is a reminder that in any crime, the trail of victims goes beyond those who were actually listed as the victim on court documents. Many people are hurt, when men seek sexual gratification at any cost outside the normal, socially acceptable boundaries, be it adultery, incest, rape or child pornography.
Lives are ruined every second of every day because a bonus in life turned into an obsession and crossed the line from being an acceptable form of recreational sex between consenting adults in a committed relationship to a thoughtless, sickening act of self indulgence. Such is the case of Carnival Cruise Line's Hendri Dharmawan who worked as a pastry chef as the ship sailed between U.S., Canadian and Caribbean ports.
Dharmawan's quest for twisted recreational sex has left him sitting in a Halifax, Nova Scotia jail after customs officers found videos of children having sex on electronics he owned and controlled including a pda device and a laptop computer. His family has come to me wanting answers, answers I can not give them.
On Wednesday, October 14, 2009 after having plead guilty to the charge he had possession of child pornography and imported it into Canada, Dharmawan was given credit for timed served and an additional two months in jail before he will be deported back to his native Indonesia.
Halifax Judge Barbara Beach remarked after learning there were 135 minutes of video footage depicting girls as young as eight and boys as young as 10 being abused in the child pornography Dharmawan possessed, "These are not just pictures," these are real children, just like you were once. You need to understand that child pornography victimizes and abuses children at the time the images are photographed and each and every time they are downloaded or disseminated. . . . The victimization of these children goes on and on and on."
Dharmawan's defense attorney, John Black pleaded with the judge to let his client go with nothing more than time served, saying his client had learned his lesson. Black indicated his client was helping pay for his younger brother’s education back home in Indonesia.
There is also anger attached to this story from the Canadian attitude towards sex offenders. Not only do they hand out light sentences, with a minimum penalty for the indictable offence of possession of child pornography being only 45 days in jail, in handing down her ruling, Beach required Dharmawan to submit his DNA to a national, Canadian data bank.
Let's forget just for a moment that Dharmawan is going to be deported to a third world country on the other side of the globe and the likelihood that he will ever touch North American soil again is slim to none. Beach's ruling that the defendant must submit DNA to a national data bank is a slap in the face to all potential victims.
Given that Canadians protect the privacy of sex offenders, do not publish their photographs or give their citizens direct access to sex offenders registries, the DNA registration is a 'closing the barn door after the horse has runs away AGAIN' policy that does absolutely nothing to prevent further victimization. Instead, the narrow-minded policy tells the potential reoffender, after you victimize again, IF we catch you, we will connect you to that new crime through your DNA, IF it takes place in Canada.
Had she ordered him to submit his photograph, dna or criminal record of sexual perversion to an international data base, or at minimum the police in his own country as well as having it published in Canada, that might have actually prevented future sex crimes. But, clearly Beach was uninterested in preventing crimes with her ruling.
This incident not only shamed Dharmawan and his little brother who contacted me, it shamed the children in the videos, the Canadian government and Judge Beach. It has once again brought to light that the Canadian's response to sex offenders has nothing at all to do with prevention and that is perhaps the biggest crime of all as it paves the way for more victimization.
This fact was documented in Halifax on October 7th, when Edgar Troy Barrington, 33, was arrested at his home after trying to a lure a child via the internet into having sex with him. Barrington, was arrested, then let out on bail pending his November 17, 2009 court hearing.
Historically, children who are lured away by strangers for the purpose of having sex are usually never seen again. Letting any person out on bail when the charge involves a sex crime involving a minor child is simply unacceptable.
Halifax resident AlexA99 commented on the story, and summarized my opinion on the Canadian solution, saying "Kudos to the police on this catch. I only wish it was not a catch and release program."
After Judge Black ruled in the Dharmawan case, the convicted Carnival Triumph crew member said, "I feel very embarrassed for myself, this will never happen again.". It is unclear if "this" is the act of being caught, arrested and convicted for being a twisted sicko or "this" is the act of victimizing children.
With an estimated 1.8 million other children worldwide forced into the multibillion-dollar commercial sex trade the passing of American Congressional legislation H.R. 1623, the "International Megan's law," leaves me feeling a sense of urgency that more has to be done.
H.R 1623 was introduced on Mar 19, 2009 and has been referred to committees including, House Foreign Affairs, House Judiciary and the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, House Judiciary, Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law. It would be hoped that if passed, all nations would join in to form a comprehensive international effort.
Giorgio Berardi, program officer for End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT) says, "Sex offenders still think they can come to East Asia and commit new crimes with impunity. We need far better collaboration between countries to prevent sexual exploitation of children."
ECPAT International is a global network dedicated to eliminating the commercial sexual exploitation of children. The International Secretariat is based in Bangkok, Thailand. There are 73 ECPAT groups located in 67 countries.
On a more positive note when it comes to preventing recidivism, the Czech Republic is right on the money with castration of convicted sex offenders. According to the reports compiled by Council of Europe, a human-rights forum, nearly 100 sex criminals in Czech Republic prisons from 1998 to April 2008 had been castrated.
According to Dr. Martin Holly, director of the Psychiatric Hospital Bohnice in Prague, none of the nearly 100 sex offenders who had been physically castrated had committed further offenses. This is a prevention program with a history of success.
It gives some credence to my theory that if you take away the penis of a man who leads his life based on what the penis wants, it is possible to readjust his priorities to a healthy focus on intellect from a previous unhealthy obsession with orgasisms.
