I am pretty stunned as I write this post. I guess I shouldn't be after reading years and years of similar incidents on these forums, but here I am nonetheless. A few years ago while searching the "map" feature of my local sex offender registry (in the USA, we can view offenders on maps to show us where they are) I came across a guy about 5 years older than me that I grew up around as a child. He was the oldest of 5 children, and I remember him well as a shy, quiet, nice boy with piercing eyes. I last saw him when he was about 17. His father professed to be of the "Anointed", and while his father was a good man, he completely neglected his family as he was also an Elder and by 1993-94 the family had broken into pieces. Anyway, he was on the sex offender registry for some reason. I never knew the extent of his criminal behavior until just today, when I saw his updated photo on the offender list, along with newest conviction. So I searched his name on Google. What I found, was utterly disturbing. Very disturbing. His behavior goes back 20 years to 1995, when he nearly beat a 2-yr old girl to death. It just gets worse from there. I know I shouldn't be surprised, but I am. He was in a Congregation that I grew up, but that dissolved around 1988. Ironically, the JW Valedictorian of a local high school (class of 1997) was also on the sex offender list. What a fine "Witness." I am so repulsed by these "to close to home" incidents that I am physically sick. I will say, that out of the 5 children of this family, only (1), the youngest brother, is still indoctrinated and involved in the cult to my knowledge. The (3) sisters, as well as their mother, left the cult years ago and have moved on with their lives. But here is article of this local abuser, who I believe has been sentenced to a mandatory 25 years in prison. Ironically, he was born in 1975.
"A convicted sex offender with a history of abusing children will be tried on new allegations of possessing child pornography, a local judge ordered Tuesday.
This time, Adrian Ben Wagner is facing a mandatory 25-year prison sentence if convicted of possessing the lewd videos.
Investigators seized from Wagner's computer more than 100 videos, which he was trading online, charging documents show.
District Judge Mary Mongiovi Sponaugle ordered that Wagner, 38, stand trial on 28 felonies, after a preliminary hearing Tuesday afternoon.
Wagner, already a Megan's Law offender, is in Lancaster County Prison in lieu of $200,000 bail.
He was convicted in 2001 of possessing child pornography and sentenced to 1 to 2 years in prison.
In 1995, he was convicted of beating a 2-year-old girl in Columbia, court records show. He was sentenced to 8 months in prison and 5 years of probation.
A third conviction of child abuse would mean at least 25 years in state prison, according to prosecutors.
"A network of pornographers and consumers, fueled by the consumption of innocence, lurk in the dark corners of the Internet," Daniel Dye, state deputy attorney general, said after the hearing. "Dedicated law enforcement continues to expose them to the light."
Dye played many of the videos during the two-hour preliminary hearing. All portray children in sex acts; some in acts with animals, according to charging documents. Police recovered 115 videos in all.
In 2001, Wagner was charged with possessing photos of children in sex acts, court documents show.
In the 1995 abuse case, doctors initially thought the 2-year-old was dead when she was brought, unresponsive, to a local hospital. She was cold, blue and lethargic and was suffering from hypothermia, reports show. She survived, but police said she would have died within hours without treatment. Police charged Wagner with beating the girl and giving her an ice-cold bath in early April in front of an open window, records show."