While this date is monumental for the Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act, in yet another small town in Pennsylvania, two young girls were forced to face the man who raped them in a court of law.
Edward Maurer "incessantly" abused the two 12 year old girls in 2009. 3 years later, the now15-year-old girls faced their abuser and won.
Maurer was arrested after one of the girls told her parents about the abuse and they called township police. The other victim, after initially denying she had been abused, came forward more than a year later.
A county jury convicted Maurer in January of more than two dozen charges, including child rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and aggravated indecent assault
The testimony at the trial in January was so graphic that one juror said they were having trouble sleeping months after the conviction.
Maurer showed the two 12-year-olds pornography, including a video of his wife having sex with another man.
"Maurer portrayed his sexual molestation of them as fun and no big deal,” McCormack wrote in his sentencing memorandum. “His abuse was extensive and without bounds...There did not appear to be an ‘off’ switch to his abuse.”
Here again, we see two heroes who had the courage to take the stand, face their abuser, and tell their truth. However, it is not without consequences.
The abuse has had a “devastating” effect on both girls... one of them said during Monday’s sentencing hearing that the trauma prompted her to try to commit suicide. “Many victims of child sexual abuse deal with a lifetime of issues,” he said. “Their ability to form lasting friendships and romantic relationships...is still an open question.”
A lifetime of issues - but already, yesterday's news. I touched on this briefly in a diary I wrote entitled
And Now, On To Other News where I said
The media will tie it all up in a neat little package with a bow and say
"See, we got the bad guy and he's in jail - And now onto other news..."
Is that what's going to happen here - again? Will children's voices be silenced because their message is too painful to bear?
I sincerely hope not, but do understand the desire to stop talking about child sexual abuse. It's a nasty subject. And it makes us feel very uncomfortable. Hell, we've had 10 victims in the Jerry Sandusky trial, 2 victims here, and they're still terming it "child molestation."
“This is something that has been kept quiet for too long...These (child molesters) are living in our neighborhoods. They are even lurking in our families sometimes.” ~Chief Deputy District Attorney, Sean McCormack
It's rape. Of a child. And it must stop.
But the conversation - must continue.