4-7-07

Three Pedophile Suspects Arrested in Walpole

By Chuck Bingaman, Contributing Writer

            Walpole Police stings have netted three men seeking sexual relations with underage girls growing out of Internet chatroom trolling, according to Det. Richard Westney.

            “But, for every one we catch,” said Westney last week, “there may be ten or twenty more that we don’t learn about.”

            Walpole Police, according to Westney, offered to work with Perverted Justice in early 2006.  Perverted Justice works with local police forces nationwide to identify and bring to justice adults that seek to victimize children through the Internet contacts.  Perverted Justice trains volunteer adults to impersonate children on regional Internet chatrooms, operates the extensive informational web site www.perverted-justice.com and occasionally provides segments showing arrests of sexual predators for NBC’s “Dateline NBC”.  The organization’s policy is to not disclose personal information or to raise sex related topics in chatroom conversations.  But, when others raise such topics in a chatroom, Perverted Justice volunteers know how to impersonate boys and girls in the 10-15 year age range.  If, as frequently happens, adult predators attempt to steer the chats in sexually suggestive ways, the Perverted Justice (or, as they say, “PeeJ”) volunteers play along to learn the predators’ identities and to collect incriminating evidence from them.

            If a predator seeks a sexual rendezvous with someone they presume is a “child”, the PeeJ volunteers contact local police in the area of the proposed meeting, turn over transcripts of the chatroom conversations, and supply other evidence that may have been sent, usually by email, to the “child” by the predator.  If the local police think they have a case, they lay a trap for the predator and, when he arrives to visit the child victim, they arrest him.

            It’s happened in Walpole three times since late December.

            In the first case, Perverted Justice volunteers contacted Walpole’s Det. Westney last December 26 to say that an apparent predator, 39-year-old Christopher McGuire of Peterborough, had proposed to meet one of their volunteers who had been posing in a chatroom as a 13-year-old girl at the North Meadow Plaza in Walpole.  The PeeJ organization sent Westney extensive chatroom transcripts, photos of McGuire that he had sent to the “girl” and even pornographic videos of himself.  Westney discussed the case with the County Attorney who encouraged him to move ahead. 

            McGuire showed up right on time but, to his surprise, five policemen met him,  took him into custody in the Plaza parking lot and charged him with attempted felonious sexual assault.  At the police station he claimed that he had come to Walpole simply to tell the young girl that she needed to be more careful in striking up relationships with unknown men on the Internet.  His story was contradicted, Westney says, by the supply of condoms he carried with him, and he gave a full confession.  He was indicted and is awaiting trial.

            In the second case, 21-year-old Andrew Kessen came from Brattleboro for his proposed rendezvous at an empty house the police arranged in North Walpole. Perverted Justice had previously supplied Walpole Police with transcripts of online chatroom conversations Kessen had had with a PeeJ volunteer posing as a 13-year-old girl leading up to his attempt to arrange a sexual rendezvous with her.  PeeJ also supplied a recent photo he had emailed to the girl he had hoped to meet that enabled police to identify him when he arrived.  Kessen’s case on attempted felonious sexual assault goes before the grand jury in Cheshire County later in April.

            Westney says the third case was the strangest so far.  In it, a 46-year-old real estate agent and contractor, John Trant Jr. of Hudson, NH, went through the usual routines that predators use, often over several months, to build trust with their young victims. He warned her against predators and attempted to give fatherly advice.  He created a video of himself eating birthday cake as a simulated celebration of her 14th  birthday.  Then he began sending her suggestive and pornographic photographs.  He didn’t know that all of his conversations and graphic emails were being archived by Perverted Justice volunteers.  And, he didn’t know that they were sending it all along to the Walpole Police after he proposed to meet the supposed “girl” at the Plaza in Walpole several weeks ago.

            When Trant arrived at the Plaza—on time—the rendezvous was completed.  But again it was with five officers possessing a solid attempted felonious sexual assault case.  True to form, he claimed that he had come simply to warn her about the dangerous aspects of her dealing with strangers in chatrooms.  His story was belied by the bed set up in the back of his crew cab truck, his supply of condoms, and the birthday cake in tow.  Having waived indictment, Mr. Trant’s case is set for its next hearing in May.

            “These people have problems,” says Det. Westney, “and they don’t know how to control them.  We just want to get them off the street.”

            To date Walpole’s is the only New Hampshire police force to be working with Perverted Justice.  Det. Westney says that Walpole’s small force would never have the manpower to develop these cases that may extend over many hours of chatroom back and forth before the predator shows his hand and begins seeking an in-person meeting.  But, with PeeJ volunteers collecting the evidence and delivering it pre-packaged to them, a review of the well-organized file and a quick arrest is all it takes to take one more predator off the street.

            “To date none of these predators have been from Walpole,” said Det. Westney.  “But we know that Walpole kids are online every day, and some of them are exposed to men like this seeking to gain their confidence.  We have kids in this age range ourselves, and we want to do all we can to discourage this sort of thing.”

            At the same time, Westney discourages individuals from trying to do what Perverted Justice does in identifying—and building cases against--child sexual predators.  “There is,” he says, “real expertise involved, and it takes sophisticated hardware and software to find and collect the evidence of online conversations, email and other items that must be gathered properly for use as courtroom evidence.  Leave it to professionals such as Perverted Justice or others that know how to do it right.”

            “Several of my guys would gladly contribute personal time to making these arrests,” said Westney.  “Taking guys like this off the streets is very satisfying work! And arresting predators sends a message to others like them that this kind of behavior is pretty risky.”

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