Posted on 06/23/2006 9:29:46 PM PDT by DBeers
Two homosexual men who sexually abused young children placed in their foster care were jailed yesterday.
Ian Wathey, 41, and his partner Craig Faunch, 32, were found guilty of a string of offences against four boys aged between eight and 14.
The pair used the boys for sexual gratification within months of being approved as foster carers by Wakefield council.
A mother of eight-year-old twins raised concerns about them with social services after finding a photograph of one of the boys as he used the lavatory.
The authorities chose to take no action after accepting the two men had been "naive and silly" for taking the photograph to embarrass others into closing the bathroom door.
They started abusing their charges three months later, in February 2004, and the offences continued over an 11-month period, Leeds Crown Court was told.
Faunch abused four boys and Wathey targeted one victim. Judge Sally Cahill, QC, said neither of the pair had shown "empathy, remorse or any responsibility for their actions".
Wathey was jailed for five years after being convicted of four counts of sexual activity with a child and one offence of causing a child to watch sexual activity.
Faunch received a six-year prison sentence after he was found guilty of five charges of engaging in sexual activity with a child and two of taking indecent photographs of a child.
Judge Cahill told Faunch: "Once you realised social services were going to take no action in respect of the photos that had been found, and believed your ridiculous story about why you had taken it, you went on to abuse others in your care believing yourself to be safe from the authorities."
She found it "incredible" that the photographs had not been reported to police in time to possibly prevent the abuse.
The twins were videoed naked by Faunch, a third boy was involved in sexual activities with both men, and a fourth was touched by Faunch.
Their victims included a 14-year-old boy with Asperger's syndrome, who had a mental age of seven and was forced by Wathey to watch explicit gay pornography.
Judge Cahill said another youngster with a "very troubled background" was only in their care for a few weeks before being abused by Faunch.
She told Faunch: "His need for care by you was obvious to all. That you chose to victimise and abuse that boy shows the very depths, in my view, that you were prepared to go. You no doubt saw him as an ideal victim.
"You are presented as a couple but this is not a case about homosexuality, it is about a breach of trust."
Both men, from Pontefract, west Yorkshire, were placed on the sex offenders register for life and also given a life ban from working with children.
Under the terms of a Sexual Offence Protection Order they are not allowed to be alone with children or vulnerable people.
Judge Cahill considered them a continued risk to children and ordered them to serve an extended period of three years on licence.
She said they were placed in a position of trust when they were allowed to foster, adding: "You abused that trust in respect of your victims most horribly. It is quite impossible to know what the long term effects will be. There is no doubt in my mind that for one of those boys it will be life-long."
Police were eventually called in to investigate the couple after one of the boys told a woman he had been touched by one of the men.
Wathey and Faunch, who took part in a civil partnership ceremony five weeks ago, are believed to have been the first homosexual couple in Yorkshire to be allowed to act as foster parents.
Kate Penrose, the senior Crown prosecutor for west Yorkshire, said yesterday: "As foster parents they took vulnerable children into their home and should have provided them with a stable and loving environment.
"Instead of being treated with kindness and dignity they were subjected to abuse at the hands of two people who were responsible for their safety and well-being.
"Children in the care of foster parents have often had a difficult start in life and have a right to expect protection."
Wakefield council has ordered a full independent inquiry into the case.
Kitty Ferris, the council's service director for children in need, said the pair had not been allowed to act as foster carers since the allegations were made against them.
She said: "Although correct procedures were carried out at every stage, the service has reviewed its internal procedures to identify what lessons should be learned."
DUH... How about identifying the lessons once known that were set aside in the delusional rush to be politically correct and please the disordered at the expense of the innocent who should be the primary concern...
An update on the UK foster care sexual abuse story.
Bring back the death penalty for these 2 (edited for content)s.
....and the judge is an idiot!!!
The sick and twisted are running the zoo, that's why.
The solution to this will not be preventing sodomites/ pedophiles from being "parents", it will be calling that behavior "normal".
Anything but allow children their right to be raised as nature intended.
"and the judge is an idiot!!!"
It occurs to me, we and other western nations all have some Muslim judges coming down the pike.
I wonder how good they will be at administrating the laws of our countries.
No surprise here.
They were the first in their area to be approved as homosexual foster parents. I wonder how many more kids are going to be raped so the Left can feel morally superior?
nmh, foster care is a very dangerous place for any child. Even in homes with heterosexual parents. I'm certainly not defending these sickos, but the fact is it's a terrible system that rarely works well. Child abuse is rampant and seldom reported. The parents can just claim the child is self inflicting and usually get away with it. The children in these systems have very few advocates, unfortunatly.
I hate to imagine. The future looks bleak, that's for sure. The crap will hit the fan someday, what ever the outcome from that, who knows.
We allow our rights and freedoms to be slowly stripped away, and weakened as a society which is supposed to control the government, allowing government absolute control over us.
By the time people wake up, it's already too late. Once that enemy of freedom and democracy gets control of government, it's over, we are doomed.
It's not a case of homosexuality the same way that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism. Another "PC" nutcase on the bench!
Absolutely unbelievable that foster children were given to perverts to foster.
Let's not open "Fatimah's Box" OK!! Remember Pandora??
Is this hard to believe or what???/sarc
How many times have you seen the stupid argument 'we don't need an Amendment to the Constitution to ban this and that an Amendment is supposed to protect rights'?
I would like to rub this dung in their faces every day.
"So what!! They had abused the widdle boys?! My heart bleeds!"
Ah...the real objective of homosexual marriage comes into view...
Society has a hierarchy of responsibilities. At the top is protecting the young. Homosexuality is, by definition, ABnormal, i.e., a deviation from the norm of the human race. Forget about whether or not it's a sickness and just look at the facts: Purposefully placing troubled children into an ABnormal home is ASKING for more trouble for those children. Hurting children should no more be placed with homosexuals than they should be placed with alcoholics or prostitutes. It is criminal behavior on the part of society. If foster homes aren't working, then society should consider creating group homes with strict oversight.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.