Posted on 01/27/2007 11:12:33 AM PST by grjr21
Years before federal authorities arrested his neighbors on child-pornography charges, a Collingdale man said, he repeatedly called police to report having heard children screaming in the night in the rowhouse next door.
Ken Christian said he dialed 911 many times over the last four years and spoke with the local police chief more than once, saying he was concerned for the children's safety. The police, he said, urged him to keep a log recording his concerns.
That log, which Christian provided to The Inquirer, recounts numerous unheeded warnings about John Jackey Worman, who was arrested Thursday on sexual-abuse and pornography charges.
Delaware County District Attorney G. Michael Green said yesterday that his office was investigating Christian's complaints to police and reviewing his handwritten log as well as reports of the Collingdale Police Department. Green declined to comment further.
Worman, 39, was charged with sexually assaulting eight children over a decade - including one child who was 3 months old - and videotaping himself engaged in sex acts with his victims. The abuse allegedly took place at his home in Collingdale and at a former residence in Colwyn.
Two Delaware County women, Concetta Jackson and Dorothy Prawdzik, were charged with helping him secretly tape sexually explicit images of children. Authorities said the women had an intimate relationship with Worman.
U.S. Attorney Patrick L. Meehan described the child abuse as horrific. Investigators who searched the Colwyn house said they recovered more than one million images from Worman's computer, including thousands of videos of him assaulting children.
An investigation into whether Worman distributed any of those images is continuing, authorities said.
To Christian, the children's plaintive screams over the years were a clear sign that something was amiss in the house on Westmont Avenue, where as many as a dozen children at a time stayed.
His complaints dated to 2003, said Christian, 56, a former SEPTA bus driver and onetime casino worker. Once, he said, he called police to report that someone was "screaming bloody murder." Another time, he said, he told them, "It sounds like someone is hurting someone."
"I mean, the walls here are, like, paper thin," he wrote in his log. "You can hear things that you would not hear in a normal and responsible family and household, especially early in the morning. It's enough to make you sick and mad because it's so disturbing."
Christian said in an interview yesterday that officers responded to his calls, but sometimes left when no one answered the door at the house next door. Twice, he said, he met with Police Chief John Hewlings to relay his concern that Worman was hurting the children, perhaps sexually.
"You would never see adults go over there," he said. "Him and the kids, that's all he associated with - little girls."
He said Hewlings seemed concerned, but appeared to take no action.
Hewlings did not return phone calls yesterday. Calls to the police department yesterday were not returned.
Christian said he also complained to the Delaware County Housing Authority, which provided a housing subsidy to Jackson, who also lived in the Collingdale house where authorities say some of the abuse took place.
In letters to the Housing Authority and in phone calls to Jackson's caseworker, Christian said he reported that he suspected that Worman was sexually abusing children in the house.
I'll just bet. Probably too busy making sure no one at Walmart was giving their kid a swat on the backside, real abuse like that.
One time I heard a girl screaming downstairs. I was in College, and I knew a young couple live downstairs. I called the police, and they wouldn't come. I went downstairs and knocked on the door myself to see if the girl was ok. And I was a young woman about to confront an abusive man. Yes, it was dangerous...but in my mind I had no choice.
The end of that story is that the girl didn't want to do anything. The police did come the next time I called and then I figured I had done my duty. I had done everything in my power. My conscience was clean. A clean conscience is the softest pillow.
Prayers for all the young victims of this evil.
There are fed laws against child porn.
This is a particularly horrific example of what can happen when citizens are brainwashed into thinking they should refer all serious problems to government authorities, rather than try to handle the problems themselves. By all means call 911, but if you hear children screaming in terror and pain, you don't wait to see whether police will show up quickly and do something. You head over with your hand on your gun, knock hard and yell "Open up right now!" If no one comes to the door within a minute at the most, you shoot your way in. If it seems like there may be multiple adults that you couldn't handle by yourself, you should be able to summon a good number of armed adult neighbors quickly, to participate in the urgent task. There is just ZERO excuse for a situation like this to continue right under the noses of concerned citizens. If it's really just a tantrum throwing preschooler or colicky baby, any responsible adult present will quickly realize that the knocking, hollering neighbor is urgently concerned there might be child abuse going on, and quickly move to reassure the visitor otherwise.
Of course, Mr. Christian and his civilized neighbors have been brainwashed into thinking they mustn't do things like that, so they don't. This monster should have had his pr!ck shot off by a concerned citizen many years ago. Then let the police and "caseworkers" explain why THEY hadn't done anything about a household which was filled to the rafters with homemade child porn, and had terrified sexually tortured children cowering in the corners.
You said -- "If no one comes to the door within a minute at the most, you shoot your way in."
Well, first -- about the walking on over to someone's house with a gun. That's one way, from what I've read from other FReepers here, to get *your head* shot off. You walk on over to someone's house with a gun and you're fair game for "self defense". I know I'd be shooting first -- with someone headed to my door and on my property with a gun.
Secondly, let's say you're banging at someone's door and demanding to get some kind of answer -- obviously being *very agitated* (which you already sound like you are). Well, how about the person just shooting you through the door because you're threatening them. It should be a "no-brainer" self-defense case for the owner of the house.
But, let's say you actually start shooting your way into the house -- well, that's so much a case for "self-defense" that even the Libs and the gun-haters will admit it.
You're absolutely crazy. I sure hope no one here, who has a gun *ever* takes your advice.
Regards,
Star Traveler
Well, the guy went wrong by thinking the police would actually do something, after the first few times he tried. He should have called a local newspaper reporter and said, "Boy, have I got a juicy story for you of the police protecting a child abuser!" And then he could have supplied the reporter with the logs
It would have been taken care of a long time ago. Sometimes a reporter can do a better job than the police.
Regards,
Star Traveler
I guess the kids must have been public school kids. Otherwise, the article would have been about homeschooling and child abuse.
Everything you wrote was horrible advice, with the sole exception of knocking on the door.
I have questions too. How did he have ACCESS to a 3 month old in his HOUSE? I mean, wouldn't the parents be a tad suspicious that their kid was missing? I suspect that these kids were "sold" to this guy by druggie/useless/POS/democrat parents.
From past experience most folks don't want to 'get involved' with neighbors that are dealing drugs, abusing their children or pets beyond a phone call to the police.
That is enough for them to clear their conscience.
Not everyone has the backbone to fight for someone else. Be proud that you do but remember there are lots of folks who will say what you did was nosey and beyond your responsibilities.
I guess. But when there's children involved, it's another matter. They cannot stand up for themselves.
IIRC the two woman involved advertised themselves as babysitters and the parents paid for it.
shoot your way in? and what happens if the child you heard screaming, was simply mad because the parents took a toy away from them?
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