A 40-year-old father from Troy, OH (whom The Associated Press isn't naming to protect the children's identities) is expected to be sentenced to at least 50 years, to run concurrently Tuesday after pleading guilty to repeatedly raping two boys he adopted, as well arranging for two other men to rape his10-year old son. He said he agreed to plead guilty in hopes of sparing the children from having to testify, that it "was the last good thing I could do for them." In a jail interview, his eyes welled up and his voice choked as he said he was sorry for the pain he had caused them. At the same time he wrote, "I've been able to protect my kids from everything and everyone, except myself."
The unmarried man was a foster parent for six other children before he began adopting children in the past three years. He adopted a brother and sister and an unrelated boy, and was in the process of adopting another boy, all ages 9-12, when authorities arrested him a year ago Sunday following an undercover sting that began when a detective looked into an online posting about "taboo sex."
"I always wanted to protect kids," he said during one of two interviews at the Miami County Jail. "Somewhere along the line, things went wrong.” I loved my kids and wanted the best for them," the man said.
He also told authorities that he had been sexually abused as a child by a close family member and blames that for his feeling that he wasn't do anything wrong when he began taking the boys into his bed in what he claimed was a way of showing love.
"I never forced the boys to do anything," he said. "That might not mean anything to anyone else, but it's important to me."
However, that doesn't account for subsequently inviting a man to their Troy home to rape one of the boys, and then taking the same boy to another man's home to be raped. He agreed that was wrong, although he stressed that he didn't prostitute the boy by getting anything in return.
In the meantime, the Associated Press reported that the private adoption agency, Dayton-based Action Inc., has remained relatively silent regarding the case, has denied any. While the state of Ohio reviewed its operations and noted some procedural violations it found no cause to suspend or revoke the agency's license. All the children had been in Texas foster care before coming to Ohio through the agency, one of many that work through interstate agreements to find homes for some of the more than 100,000 children in foster care awaiting adoption at any given time in the United States.
"This isn't a typical situation. It certainly isn't typical of people seeking adoption," said David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. "Most abusers of this sort have an interest in a child during a certain period of their development. They are looking for opportunities where they can get access to the kids. They don't want to have custodial responsibility."
It was also noted that federal studies have indicated “child abuse by adoptive fathers is much rarer than by biological fathers, or by other male relatives and non-relative
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