US Attorney Troy A. Eid decries arrival of "sexual tourism" to Colorado
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
January 04, 2009
Sex trade hits home
By TROY EID
(Troy A. Eid is the United States Attorney for the District of
Colorado.)
A Canon City mother offered herself and her 13-year-old daughter as a
"package" for sex; or so the sexual predator thought as he chatted on
the Internet earlier this year.
That predator, Lawrence Couturier, a 61-year-old Canadian citizen,
fantasized online about impregnating both mother and daughter, according
to court records.
He then put his plan into action. Armed with boxes of Cialis and a
digital camera, Couturier flew from British Columbia to Denver
International Airport, rented a car and drove south on Interstate 25 to
Fremont County.
To his surprise, the "family" in Canon City turned out to be a lone
undercover agent.
Couturier pled guilty on Oct. 10 to a charge of interstate traveling to
engage in unlawful sexual activity. He's now serving a five-year
sentence in federal prison.
The day before in the same federal courthouse in Denver, another sexual
predator, 32-year-old Lennon Park of Salt Lake City, pled guilty to
using the Internet to lure a 12-year-old girl to Glenwood Springs.
Tragically, this victim was real, and Park raped her.
What some call "sexual tourism" has arrived in Colorado.
Just this year, Colorado's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force -
a statewide partnership of state, local and federal agencies based at
the Colorado Springs Police Department - has worked with the U.S.
Attorney's Office and its Project Safe Childhood Coordinator, prosecutor
Judith Smith, in a triple prosecution of these so-called sexual traveler
cases.
Several local district attorney's offices are doing the same for
in-state travel under Colorado law.
Unfortunately, for every undercover operation here and across the
nation, there are many more real parents - fathers and mothers and
step-parents - determined to exploit their own children for pornography,
or to provide them directly to pedophiles.
The demand for package sex, with adults selling children, is worldwide
and growing. In a typical case earlier this year, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation estimated that a father received $80,000 in one year by
offering his 13-year-old daughter over the Internet to sexual predators.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has catalogued
hundreds of similar cases where toddlers and babies have been "marketed"
for illicit purposes, many of them groomed by incest and other abuse.
The agency estimates that of all child sexual abuse, 45 percent is
committed by parents or other relatives.
As hard as it can be to talk about this, we must.
Internet-enabled child sexual exploitation is a far bigger problem than
any of us imagined just a few years ago. The victims are increasingly
younger. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children believes
85 percent of all known child pornography images involve pre-pubescent
kids. And the abuse more violent.
In the recent Operation Landslide - a Texas-based investigation led by
the U.S. Postal Inspection Service - more than 70,000 adults paid $29.95
per month by credit card for access to child pornography, much of it
displaying violent sexual abuse of pre-teens.
Of course we must always honor Americans' civil liberties. But child
pornography has absolutely no First Amendment protection, according to
the U.S. Supreme Court. This is not about "free speech," but child
protection.
Peer-reviewed research by the University of Pennsylvania and elsewhere
has identified a virtual one-to-one relationship between child
pornography users and actual child sexual abusers.
The sexual tourist presents a special danger: An adult willing to travel
to our communities, often at considerable cost and great risk, to abuse
children. Here in Colorado, we'll keep working with law enforcement at
all levels - state, local, tribal and federal - to meet this threat.
But we can't just prosecute our way out of this nightmare.
Parents, teachers, community activists, and faith-based organizations
need to talk openly about how the Internet can empower sexual predators.
A non-profit group created here in Colorado, the Internet Safety
Foundation ( www.internetsafetycolorado.org ), can help by providing
online resources for families to shield children from abusers, along
with lesson plans for educators.
Together, we must send a message: Sexual tourists aren't welcome in
Colorado.
Click here to visit the Pueblo Chieftain website.
