A True Pedophile or Child Molester in Our Midst?

A well-respected college football assistant coach founded a charity organization to help underprivileged youth. Many dozens of youth were assisted over several years, especially young boys. Everyone, including his family, was very proud of the efforts he made to help youth. However, the coach was also grooming these boys for sexual encounters. For 30 years he molested boys at their schools, in his basement, his car, on the college campus, at his favorite golf resort, in locker rooms, and in hotel rooms. Others suspected things were amiss but reports never seemed to go very far. The public scandal would be devastating to any university, and the financial costs would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Eventually, however, a report by one of the football staff became public. Part of the reason the coach’s behavior could be overlooked or dismissed for so many years was because he was a married man with children. True pedophiles are not interested in sex with adults. However, the coach’s children were all adopted. During the trial, one of the adopted boys came forward and admitted that he too was one of the coach’s victims.

In some cases, true pedophiles marry to access children, and they are very good at manipulating members of the family, including their spouses. After many years of grooming, the coach had a system worked out where nobody in his family was willing to report him even if there were suspicions. Besides, he loved these children, or at least that was the public impression. If you were prosecuting this case, how might you explain the coach’s attraction to young boys in order for the jury to understand why it occurred? Was he a child molester, or a true pedophile?