Older girls, younger men, older men, younger girls

After my posting of Thursday, and the stories of charges against adults for sex with underage kids, I wasn't going to write about the subject for a while, but just last night this popped up on my e-mail:

Baby Sitter Accused of Sex With Boy, 14
AP
Copyright © 2009 Associated Press

POST FALLS, Idaho (July 9) - An Idaho woman faces charges that she had sex with a 14-year-old boy that she was hired to watch in August 2007.

KXLY-TV reported Tuesday that 28-year-old Summer Nelson, of Post Falls, was charged Monday with four counts of lewd conduct with a child.

Authorities in Idaho said Summer Nelson, 28, had at least four sexual encounters with a 14-year-old boy she was hired to watch in the summer of 2007.

Court records say Nelson was a friend of the boy's mother. Police say the abuse was reported in December 2008, after the boy's mother grew suspicious of Nelson's attention toward the boy.

Investigators say Nelson told the boy's siblings that she was in love with their brother. Detectives say Nelson and the boy had at least four sexual encounters.

Nelson remains held in Kootenai County Jail on $50,000 bond. It was not immediately known whether she had a lawyer.

Then in my morning paper more stories, both of these about men involved with female teens, first the story of a Latter-day Saints Seminary principal, arrested for a two-month involvement with an underage girl.

LDS principal faces sex charges

HIGHLAND, Utah(July 10)

"Police say Michael Jay Pratt [no age given] began exchanging text messages with a 16-year-old girl on May 1. Pratt would check her out of school and take her to various locations around the Utah valley for sexual acts, according to Sgt Matt Higley with the Utah County Sex Crimes Task Force.

The locations included Provo Canyon, Alpine, Highland, Goshen and Eureka, Higley said. Pratt also took the girl into at least one unoccupied home, he said.

Higley said the encounters involved a range of different acts--"basically everthing but full intercourse." The victim told police about the alleged crimes earlier this week, Higley said."

Another story, same day:

Accused of sex with teen with teen, teacher hit with new felony rape charges
By Steven Hunt

FILLMORE, Utah(July 10)

"Keith Lorraine Gillins--a Millard High School teacher and former Fillmore mayor accused of having sex with a female student--is now in even deeper trouble with the law.

Gillins, 61, was charged last month in 4th district Court with two counts of third-degree felony unlawful sexual conduct with a 16- or 17-year-old, each carrying a potential term of up to five years.

But prosecutors this week dropped those charges and filed four counts of first-degree felony rape, each count punishable for up to life in prison, and 11 counts of second-degree felony forcible sexual abuse, each punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

The new charges indicate the alleged sex acts occurred without the victim's consent, and that Gillins occupied a 'position of special trust' in relation to the victim, by virtue of his role as a teacher.

. . .Gillins worked at Millard High School from 1973 to 1979, according to the Millard County School District. He left the school to sell insurance and was Fillmore's mayor from 1986 to 1997. Gillins returned in 2003 to Millard High, where he taught English and coached boys' basketball."

Both of the above stories are Copyright © 2009 The Salt Lake Tribune.

In both of these cases the men were in a "position of special trust", which is added to the charges now so the law can really sock it to teachers and clergymen, scout leaders and those who have a special obligation to keep kids safe.

In both of the stories the writer uses the word "victim" to describe the young female, but there seem to be be degrees of victimization there. If the 61-year-old teacher and former mayor, or the Latter-day Saint seminary principal have no history of prior sexual misconduct, and none is mentioned in either story, then exactly what precipitated their full force bellyflops into the waters of sin? Both of these men are educated, with college degrees. No families are mentioned but they probably both have them, so why are they in the predicaments they find themselves in?

But it isn't at all unusual to find men in illicit relationships with young girls, just unusual to hear of women in relationships with young boys. I should say it's getting more usual to hear these stories, and it's made me sit up and take notice.

Something else I noticed; Summer Nelson appears to have Michael Jackson's nose. A nose for young boys, perhaps, hmmm?