David Helsel – Repeat Sex Offender – Cemetery Predator

A convicted Megan’s Law offender is accused of dragging a teen into the woods and trying to rape her at knifepoint.

David Helsel, of Altoona, was arrested after a short manhunt Tuesday night and is facing numerous charges, including indecent assault.

Helsel was convicted previously of rape and is listed on the Megan’s Law Web site as a sex offender.

Altoona police said Helsel approached a group of juveniles — two girls and three boys — at the Oakridge Cemetery on 10th Street. Helsel claimed he worked at the cemetery and blamed the group for knocking over tombstones. When the juveniles tried to walk away, Helsel punched one of the boys in the face, police said.

Soon after, police said Helsel allegedly grabbed the two girls and forced them to enter a wooded area about a block away. There, Helsel pulled out a knife and assaulted both teens before one managed to escape, police said.

The girl called police, who arrived moments later to find Helsel standing over the other girl, who was partially nude.

Helsel fled the scene but officers caught him after a chase, police said. He remains at the Blair County Prison on $500,000 bond.

The girl was taken to Altoona Regional Hospital, where she was examined and released.

“25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years”
………Sarah Tofte

Anthony Curran – Repeat Sex Offender – On trial for 2 new rapes

A SEXUAL predator raped two female strangers in terrifying attacks eight months apart, a court was told.

Anthony Curran, 28, who was convicted of rape in 2002, is alleged to have sneaked into a house at night through the unlocked front door and raped a 32-year-old woman after getting into her bed as she slept.

And in a second attack he raped a woman aged 31 on waste ground after offering to walk her home from a seafront nightclub in the early hours of the morning, Newcastle Crown Court was told yesterday. Curran, of Ridley Avenue, Wallsend, denies two counts of rape – the first on December 9, 2007 in Cullercoats and the second on August 3 last year in Whitley Bay, both North Tyneside.

He said he had never been to the house where the first attack took place but has given no explanation for two hairs found in the victim’s bed which matched his DNA profile. He maintains the second woman consented to sex.

Prosecutor Penny Moreland told the jury Curran was a sexual predator who had targeted and taken advantage of two vulnerable women.

“His offending you may think is not about an overwhelming sexual urge because at the time of both these offences he had a girlfriend with whom he had sexual relations,” she said .

“You may think it is about the exercise of force and control over his victims, his victims’ fear when they attempt to resist. It is the act of rape, not sex, that is his motivation in offending.”

The court was told the victim of the Cullercoats attack had gone to bed, leaving her partner asleep on the sofa in the living room.

At 6am she had become aware of someone behind her in bed and presuming it to be her partner, drifted back to sleep, but became alarmed when she could feel cold outdoor clothing against her skin.

She was raped after being pushed over on to her front, her face being forced into the pillow so she could hardly breathe. She managed to turn back over and bite her attacker on the hand causing him to recoil and giving her the chance to scream for her boyfriend. The man then ran downstairs and was grabbed in he hallway by the victim’s partner but managed to wriggle away.

Investigations revealed the attacker had armed himself with a two kilo weight which had been in the garden but which was recovered inside the house.

Curran – whose mother lived in Cullercoats – was arrested eight months later after he is alleged to have raped the woman in Whitley Bay. The trial continues today.

“25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years”
………Sarah Tofte

Richard Scott Campbell – Repeat Sex Offender – Making Up-skirt shots at Wal-Mart

A New Kent County resident who is on the state’s sex-offender registry faces a court hearing next month for a sex-offense charge in Henrico County.

Police say Richard Scott Campbell, 41, snapped unauthorized pictures June 9 at a Wal-Mart in the 7900 block of Brook Road in Henrico. Police say he used his cell phone to snap pictures up a woman’s skirt.

The woman noticed Campbell when she turned away from a clearance display of cosmetics, authorities said.

“Mr. Campbell was kneeling down holding his cell phone under the victim’s skirt taking pictures,” according to a search warrant.

She followed him to the parking lot and took down his license plate information, then notified authorities.

According to state police, Campbell has three convictions for indecent exposure, the most recent in Chesterfield County in April 2001. Those convictions have made him a registered sex offender.

He is due in Henrico court July 21 for a preliminary hearing.

“25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years”
………Sarah Tofte

Jeremy "Jay" Semprebon – Repeat Sex Offender – Hid his status – and reoffended

Jeremy “Jay” Semprebon was in possession of more than a hundred images of child pornography when detectives raided his personal computer last fall, say police.

As a result, the 40-year-old former AIDS Response-Seacoast counselor and registered sex offender has been indicted by a Rockingham County grand jury on 17 new counts of possession of child pornography.

Semprebon has been incarcerated at the Rockingham County House of Corrections since his August 2008 arrest in which he was charged with and indicted on felony counts of “prohibition from child care services of persons convicted of certain offenses.”

Those charges allege Semprebon failed to disclose his sex-offender status before counseling minors at Seacoast Outright, while acting as an agent of AIDS Response Seacoast.

Police allege he had contact with minors during his course of employment with AIDS Response Seacoast, despite a court order to not have contact with children. He is alleged to have begun working as a youth coordinator for the nonprofit in the summer of 2007 and did not disclose his sex-offender status when he was hired.

As part of his job, Semprebon was sent to other nonprofits and worked with both adults and minors.

The former Rye resident is a registered sex offender on New Hampshire’s public list, having been convicted in 1995 in Strafford County of aggravated felonious sexual assault on a 5-year-old child.

The latest charges stem from a search warrant obtained by local police detectives during the course of investigation into his employment status last fall, according to Detective Kristyn Bernier.

Bernier said the investigation revealed that Semprebon had made his way onto various social networking sites and because of that police were concerned he was trying to look for more victims.

“We were concerned that there might be more victims out there,” said Bernier.

When detectives obtained a search warrant for his computer looking for his history on the social networking site, Bernier said they discovered some pictures deemed as “child sexual assault images.”

After obtaining an addendum to the search warrant, Bernier said detectives stumbled upon more than 100 images of prepubescent males undressed and exploited.

Bernier said although detectives were unable to pinpoint the exact identity of the victims, it was clear that many of them were of young boys. Some of the images were of the same children, while many of them were of a variety of different victims.

Authorities are unsure of the source of the images, but Bernier said they could have been downloaded by Semprebon, obtained through peer-to-peer networking, e-mailed or taken by himself.

The detective said police have forwarded the images to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for evaluation and in an effort to locate the children depicted.

An indictment is not an indication of guilt; rather it means a grand jury has found sufficient evidence to warrant a trial.

“25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years”
………Sarah Tofte

Child porn victim faces defendants

Courtroom to courtroom she walked, a young woman clutching a paper that held her message of anger, hurt and sorrow.

Without a tear or the hint of an emotional breakdown, she clearly and forcefully spoke her written words to five convicted child pornographers, men who listened with downcast eyes or vacant stares.

“They are being entertained by my pain and my shame,” she told federal judges Monday in three different Fresno courtrooms. “It feels like I am being raped by each and every one of them.”

Each year, thousands of people — almost always men — are convicted on child pornography charges. Rarely, however, do authorities know the real people who are featured in the photographs and videos that, thanks to the Internet, are traded by pedophiles around the world.

This woman is different. Investigators were able to identify her.

And now — in what appears to be an emerging legal trend at the federal level — she is seeking restitution from the men who, when arrested, had videos featuring her.

The woman Monday addressed five of the six men she is seeking restitution from. A decision on restitution was rendered in only one case.

Among those she faced was Raymond Ferenci, 52, the longtime director of Tulare Western High School’s marching band. Ferenci was sentenced Monday to 6 1/2 years in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Anthony W. Ishii.

Not present was Terry Zane, 58, a former Fresno Unified School District music teacher, although Zane’s attorney was present. In March, Zane was given the same sentence as Ferenci. Both men — along with two other men — will return to federal court next month for a hearing on the woman’s restitution claim.

Prosecutor David Gappa said the woman is one of two victims who have filed restitution claims in U.S. District Court in Fresno. He is not sure why the trend is emerging now.

“I think it’s just taken awhile for them to learn about the process and realize the possibility of filing a claim,” Gappa said.

He said the restitution sought is for costs associated with past, current and future counseling.

In an unrelated case, a Connecticut federal judge this year ordered a man convicted of possessing and distributing child pornography to pay about $200,000 in restitution to a woman who was photographed being sexually abused as a child.

Now 19, the Washington state resident who spoke Monday in Fresno’s federal courthouse was 10 and 11 when her father fondled her and later had oral and anal sex with her for his own gratification. Her name was not revealed in court.

He recorded the incidents, and then sent out the videos over the Internet, where they spread far and wide among traders in child pornography. It wasn’t until she was 17 that she found out her father had gone online and traded videos of her.

“They don’t know me, but they’ve seen every part of my body,” the woman said in court. “They are trading my trauma around like treats at a party.”

The woman’s mother also testified, saying “the sadness this brings me is unending.”

Her former husband began abusing their daughter in 2000, but it wasn’t until several years later that she told her mother. The TV show “America’s Most Wanted” later ran two shows about the case.

The father, however, fled the United States in 2006. He was later arrested in Hong Kong and eventually sentenced to 50 years in federal prison.

His daughter’s first stop Monday was in U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill’s courtroom, where she read a statement at 22-year-old Fresno resident Ryan Christopher Lynn’s sentencing hearing.

O’Neill sentenced Lynn — who had been found guilty in an earlier jury trial — to 171/2 years in prison for trafficking in child pornography. O’Neill said Lynn showed “staggering immaturity.”

He set a hearing for next month on the woman’s restitution claim.

The judge then turned his attention to the woman, telling her she should not let herself be “dragged down by indecent people. … You need to move past that speed bump that seems like a brick wall … because you did nothing wrong.”

Already, she had told O’Neill that she lives in a constant state of paranoia, wondering whether men she sees in the grocery store have seen the video of her.

She also said she feels like she is being stalked because men have tried to track her down through friends’ MySpace pages, and a video of her appearance on “America’s Most Wanted” — in which she was much older — was featured in a compilation video traded by child pornographers. Lynn possessed that video as well, authorities said.

After addressing the multiple defendants in Ishii’s courtroom, the woman ended her day inWanger’s courtroom, where 40-year-old Robert Thompson of Exeter was sentenced to 10 years and 1 month in federal prison.

Wanger, however, denied the $150,000 restitution request because he said Thompson had no assets and no prospect of ever being able to pay the money.

After the woman addressed the court, Wanger turned to Thompson: “In every case,” the judge said, “these are real human beings.”

Samuel Huffer – Registered Sex Offender – Directing "Annie"

FREDERICK, MD – A summer production of “Annie” is getting a lot of fanfare – not because of the talent, but because of the play’s director. Turns out he’s a convicted sex offender.

The director, Samuel Huffer, spent 21 months in federal prison for possessing child pornography. He had worked as a drama teacher in Walkersville, but when officials raided his home in 2001, State’s Attorney Charlie Smith says they found pornographic tapes of boys.

“A leopard doesn’t change their spots,” Smith said. “I would think that there should be a moral obligation on these types of programs to notify parents.”

The play is put on by the Frederick Town Players. The community organization didn’t notify parent’s until three weeks into rehearsals.

“I don’t think Sam will harm a child. He certainly was convicted of a serious crime, he served prison time, and fulfilled his probation,” said Rick Weldon, who plays Daddy Warbucks.

There are about 50 people in the cast, and half of them are children. Weldon says Huffer is an exceptional director and the children are not in danger.

He added, “I would never put my personal reputation on the line to be involved in a production that I thought children were going to be at risk. I just wouldn’t have done it.”

Huffer has completed his three years of supervised probation. The State’s Attorney says he is not breaking the law by directing plays.

Kyle Fuchs – Repeat Sex Offender – Plead Down then became a Sick Twisted Internet Predator

The defendant had been charged once before, at age 17, on five counts of child rape involving a 15-year-old, although three of those charges were dismissed and two were reduced to the less-severe indecent assault and battery of a minor, according to court documents

Kyle Fuchs and his lawyer, Fred McAlary, say that what he did was a result of coming of age in a teenage culture that condones practices such as “sexting” and “hooking up” with “friends with benefits.”

But prosecutor Gregory Friedholm, who noted that Fuchs was on probation for another sexual assault at the time some of the offenses occurred, called Fuchs a predator who showed “absolute disregard for the personal integrity of others.”

And Salem Superior Court Judge Howard Whitehead said Fuchs went well beyond the behavior of other teens. “This kind of behavior is an outgrowth of the sexting culture,” said the judge, who believes it “opens the door for predators to come in and exploit” teens.

A 20-year-old Massachusetts man has been sentenced to eight years in prison after an investigator with the Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force identified him and one of his victims in child-pornography pictures.

Kyle Fuchs was sentenced June 8 for raping three girls and posting online photos of his victims, according to a news release from the Utah Attorney General’s Office.

In 2007, Steve Gamvroulas, an ICAC agent with the Utah Department of Public Safety, discovered 42 images of a victim that had been sent to a Utah man who was suspected of trading child pornography. A school cheerleading outfit, a New England Patriots jersey and a partial word on a sweatshirt were the only clues Gamvroulas had to work with to begin his investigation.

Over the course of time, Gamvroulas was able to use that information to identify the victim.

Massachusetts state police then seized Fuchs’ computer, and investigators found 5,000 more explicit images of underage girls, including 174 pictures where the girls could be identified, according to the attorney general’s office.

Fuchs had been having sex with a 14-year-old girl he had met on MySpace and posting explicit pictures of her on the social-networking Web site, the attorney general’s office said.

“The ICAC Task Force should be proud of stopping a monster,” says Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. “The persistence of the investigators to keep looking until they found this girl means that many more girls will not be abused.”

A relationship spawned on MySpace turned criminal, police said, when a 19-year-old man had sex with a 14-year-old Swampscott girl and posted explicit photos of her online.

State police learned of the victim’s nude photos from detectives in Utah and later alerted authorities in Swampscott, the prosecutor said. Taylor said she believed other jurisdictions, including Saugus, also would bring charges against Fuchs.

The defendant had been charged once before, at age 17, on five counts of child rape involving a 15-year-old, although three of those charges were dismissed and two were reduced to the less-severe indecent assault and battery of a minor, according to court documents

Fuchs had posted nude photos of the victim on MySpace, a popular social-networking Web site, which the girl had removed through the site administrator, the prosecutor said.

The defendant had also grown aggressive with her, once pushing the girl against a wall and later raising fears he was stalking her, Taylor said.

“25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years”
………Sarah Tofte

Fuchs came to the attention of authorities twice, the first time in the spring of 2006, when he was charged with raping a girl in Lynn. A plea agreement reduced the charges to indecent assault and battery, and he was given an 18-month suspended sentence.

All the while, investigators would later learn, Fuchs, then 17, was dating and having sex with a 14-year-old girl from Swampscott and taking explicit photos of her, even after being put on probation in the Lynn case.

In 2007, police in Utah contacted the Massachusetts State Police, after discovering what they believed were 42 images of child pornography sent by Fuchs to a person there. Some of the pictures were of Fuchs’ young girlfriend, who was later identified by police.

Police seized Fuchs’ computer and found more than 5,000 other images of underage girls in explicit poses, including 174 in which they could identify the girls.

Among those images was that of a Lynn girl, who was 15 when Fuchs took at least seven explicit pictures, and of a girl in Texas, who had, at Fuchs’ behest, taken photos of herself with signs reading “Kyle owns this” next to her nude body.

Another victim said Fuchs had invited her to watch television at his father’s house in October 2004, and while there, attacked her, pinning her to a bed and forcibly raping her.

A year after that, police learned, Fuchs, a football player, asked out a girl he met at a Salem High School football game. She said he took her to a secluded spot and forced her to perform sexual activity. Then, after he apologized, she agreed to go on a date to the Topsfield Fair. Afterward, he forcibly raped her.

Police also identified pictures of a girl who had dated Fuchs five years earlier, when both of them were 14.

Friedholm said Fuchs met most of the girls online.

He said Fuchs’ conduct shows a “nonchalance and lack of regard” for the girls, one of whom fell into a severe depression and was hospitalized.

“This defendant is showing a pattern of predatory conduct,” Friedholm said.

Joseph Lewis Smith – Facing charges for child molestation – he had child porn too – DUH!

A San Carlos Park man awaiting a state trial for alleged child molestation is now facing federal child pornography charges.

U.S. Marshals nabbed Joseph Lewis Smith, 39, of 18562 Zinnia Road, on Friday, following a Wednesday indictment. Smith is charged with one count of possession of child pornography and one count of receiving images from across state lines.

“I can tell you it’s some of the worst child pornography I’ve ever heard of,” Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Malloy said of the case.

At the time of his arrest, Smith was awaiting trial in state court on a felony molestation charge from February. Accused of molesting a girl in his care under the age of 12, he was released on bond the day after his arrest.

With Friday’s arrest, Smith is now back in jail and scheduled for arraignment before a federal judge on Wednesday. A detention hearing at the same time will determine whether he stays in jail or is released.

Malloy said Lee County deputies notified FBI agents about the images during the Sheriff’s Office investigation. Deputies searched Smith’s house at one point, according to the arrest report from February.

According to his federal indictment, Smith received the images from as far back as January 2005. Malloy said they were especially graphic and involved young children.

“Sometimes people think this could be a mistake or a pop-up,” he said. “These are thousands of images.”

The indictment calls for the forfeiture of two computers and a USB drive at Smith’s home.

Smith’s February arrest followed accusations by the child, who was occasionally placed in Smith’s care by her mother. The child told investigators that Smith had her undress to her underware, and that he would massage and touch her buttocks and vagina with his hands and with a vibrator.

As part of Smith’s release, he was told to have no contact with the victim, through e-mail or texting, and he wasn’t allowed within 500 feet of the child’s house. He also surrendered his passport.

If convicted of the state charge, Smith faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. The two federal counts carry a maximum 15 years in federal prison.

Terry Leggio – Life in Prison for trying to hire the deaths of the children he had molested

OMAHA, Neb. — A man who tried to arrange for the slayings of his former girlfriend and her two children has been sentenced to 50 years in prison, said Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilbur.

Terry Leggio was sentenced Monday in Council Bluffs. Leggio is already serving 50 years for a sexual assault conviction. Police said he unknowingly made a deal with an undercover investigator to kill the children – he was convicted of molesting, their mother and an investigator.

Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilbur said the two consecutive sentences will prevent Leggio from seeking parole until Leggio is 102.

Lewis Harrison – Repeat Sex Offender – Compulsive

A registered sex offender we first told you about months ago is back in trouble again after allegedly exposing himself to children.

Police say Lewis Harrison exposed himself to girls sitting on the front porch of a West Louisville home Sunday night, but it’s far from the first time police have had dealings with him.

Harrison’s record goes back to 1987. He has numerous arrests for indecent exposure, voyeurism and failing to comply with the sex offender registry.

He’s been charged before with pleasuring himself near pools and bus stops, but hasn’t spent much time behind bars for his alleged crimes.

The last time WHAS11 told you about 41-year-old Harrison, he had just been thrown in jail for allegedly pleasuring himself at a school bus stop.

A new victim is now speaking out about Harrison. Two teenage sisters say on Sunday, a stranger parked in the alley across from their home, then pretended to work on his car.

The girls say eventually the man began exposing and pleasuring himself. They called police, who arrested Lewis Harrison on felony charges of first degree indecent exposure, but this was not the first time.

Since 1987, Harrison has been charged repeatedly for sex crimes involving children, the charges include 14 counts of indecent exposure, voyeurism and failing to comply with the sex offender registry.

Police said Harrison had pornography, Vaseline and a camera in his car.

A mother in the complex also said Harrison attempted to abduct her young daughter. According to police reports, Harrison was sitting in his vehicle touching himself while watching small children swimming in Shelby Park pool. When officers took him into custody, he had a picture of his private parts attached to a note with his phone number on it.

Yet Harrison has spent relatively little time behind bars. The sexual abuse charge stemming from September’s arrest is a Class D Felony, punishable by up to 5 years in prison. Yet Harrison pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced to probation and time served only 13 days.

Harrison was arrested six months later after passing out in his vehicle with his exposed genitals in his hand.

Harrison is currently being held under a $5,000 full cash bond. He’ll be back in court on the latest charges on June 25th. His trial for another incident in March is scheduled for August.

“25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years”
………Sarah Tofte