The 14 year-old had a bicycle, a computer, a cell phone, and played video games. He would go out to eat at fast-food places with buddies his own age.
I am sure the first thing a defense lawyer would ask him was why he didn’t contact the police.
I am afraid his motives for doing what he did might not have been entirely creditable. Certainly, the defense would have gone for that angle.
Stockholm Syndrome. Would trump any BS defense put forth.
True. AFTER Devlin used brain washing techniques/rape/beatings on an 11 year child. Why do you think Devlin is pleading guilty? Because the child wanted to stay? He just wants to spend the rest of his life in prison, without a trial?
But, yeah, we should blame the victim.
I'm sure the defense would have, but they'd be hard pressed to prove that an 11 yr. old boy who was continually told that his parents didn't want him anymore, that they'd moved and didn't say where they were going, all those things, along with the shame of sexual abuse, was acting on his own, and in his right mind. Deviants are terrific at manipulation; heck, grown women and men are victims of this all the time! How do you think a young boy could withstand this 24/7?
He made some friends locally, got used to his life, and probably didn't think anything about it until Ben was kidnapped. He might even have heard Devlin telling Ben what he's been told four years before, realized that something was very wrong, and he wanted to spare Ben what he'd been through. He also might have begun to fear for his life, but thought he had no place else to go.
I'm glad he's going to be spared having to testify in court. If he wants to tell his story, let him tell it on his own terms, not under the scrutiny of a defense lawyer who will twist even the most innocent of things against the boy, when it was Devlin who was in the wrong.
Hear’s some testimony from today’s hearing that sheds some light on Shawn’s motive.
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,300459,00.html
During Tuesday’s hearing, Devlin — standing just feet away from Shawn’s weeping parents — admitted in graphic detail how he abducted Shawn in 2002. He described the point at which the boy apparently turned from being an abduction victim to a captive forced to stay alive by following Devlin’s horrific orders.
After Shawn was abducted at gunpoint while riding his bike in rural Washington County, Devlin took the then-11-year-old to his apartment in suburban St. Louis where he repeatedly sexually assaulted the boy. Days later, Devlin took Shawn back to rural Washington County in his pickup truck, apparently intent on killing him.
He said he pulled Shawn from his truck and began to strangle him. Shawn resisted.
“I attempted to kill (Shawn) and he talked me out of it,” Devlin said.
Devlin stopped the choking, but then sexually assaulted the boy again. Prosecutors said it was at that point that Shawn told Devlin he would do whatever was asked of him in order to stay alive.
“This boy made this contract, this deal with the devil, only to survive,” Washington County prosecutor John Rupp said.