He could have succumbed to guilt or succumbed to the fact that his love of being around young boys was about to be terminated, something he could not live without.
While a suicide to avoid the process certainly suggests guilt, it’s perhaps important to remember that crimes of a sexual nature carry with them the assumption of guilt— forever.
If somebody is accused of stealing items from a store and is later aquitted of the charges, their reputation can be rebuilt. But somebody accused of a sexual crime against a child, especially, will for the rest of their lives be tainted and suspect. If they really didn’t do it... it just doesn’t matter to anyone.
Sexual crimes are different. The whole “presumption of innocence” is nonsense. People presume guilt on sex crimes.
So... now we’ll probably never know really, for sure. Suicide sure makes him look guilty. The suicide being the way out for a tortured soul. But a depressed man that’s now seen his whole future destroyed and with no way to recover his life... might also be suicidal.
Anyway... another .02 for the discussion.
Hmmm...that’s a valid point.