DAYTONA BEACH — Reports of sexual abuse against children in Volusia and Flagler counties have risen in recent years, but child advocates fear even more cases because children are afraid to speak up.
The arrest this month of the local foster parent association president, George Allen Goolde, 61, charged with four counts of molestation involving children in his care, is one example.
A former foster teen who used to live in Goolde’s Orange City home said recently he suspected abuse was occurring with younger children there, but he didn’t have proof and was afraid no one would believe him.
If there’s no physical evidence, sexual abuse can become “a child’s word against the adult’s word,” said Karen Horzepa, Child Protection Team coordinator of the Children’s Advocacy Center, which helps state officials and police interview and examine children who are victims of abuse.
In Goolde’s case, police said, he admitted to fondling two of the children. Two others also say he fondled them during “story time” and other children who were in his home are still being interviewed.
In 2005, workers with the state Department of Children & Families in Volusia and Flagler counties investigated 618 reports of sex abuse allegations, up from 501 in 2004. Of the 618, investigators found indications of abuse in 233 cases. So far this year, there have been 541 sex abuse reports, and investigators found 167 had indications of sexual abuse. There may be even more this year since investigations on many cases are still pending, officials said.
Horzepa said children are often “threatened not to tell or there is the implication of the threat.”
The perpetrator also is almost always someone the child knows, officials said. They added children are usually not the ones who report the incident because they are afraid and their parents sometimes don’t believe them.
The child also may not know the abuse is wrong or may fear getting in trouble or disrupting the family, said Suzy Williams, program director of the Children’s Advocacy Center’s Sexual Assault Response Team program, which conducts some of the exams and interviews.
“It’s hard to go to another adult and trust them when it is an adult who is hurting you,” Williams said.
Recently, within a week, the Sexual Assault Response Team saw two 6-year-olds and a 9-month-old in three separate cases.
“It’s horribly sad,” Williams said. “There’s an incredible amount of abuse out there. It’s just not a subject people want to listen to.”
The advocacy center’s Child Protection Team works with the schools on how to identify signs of sexual abuse. They also have counselors who talk to children in schools and in neighborhood programs.
“Our message to children is don’t keep the secret,” said Maryann Barry, chief executive officer of the advocacy center, which handled 516 child sex cases in 2005 and so far this year about 470.
More coordination between the advocacy center, law enforcement agencies and the State Attorney’s Office is helping in gathering evidence and interviewing children as soon as possible, officials said.
“In my opinion, I don’t think they should ever come out (of jail),” Barry said, referring to child sex abuse perpetrators. “You should lose your right to go out in society and should be placed where you can no longer harm a child again. The scars are forever in a child.”
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Sex Crimes Unit investigated 260 sex crime cases against children 15 and under in 2005. Sixty-nine cases were sent to the State Attorney’s Office and 55 resulted in arrests warrants and eight in search warrants, said Sgt. Cynthia Gambrell, who oversees the unit.
About 220 sex crime cases were investigated by the unit from January to October this year and 57 cases have been sent to the State Attorney’s Office. There have been 25 arrest warrants, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
“We do enjoy locking up the bad guys and when we lock them up, we usually lock them up for a long time,” Gambrell said.
Shannon Peters, an assistant state attorney, said not every case goes to trial. Often, she said, the family or victims prefer to resolve the case and have the suspect take a plea that could result in a lesser sentence to avoid having the child testify. The State Attorney’s Office does not keep statistics on how many child sex abuse cases have been prosecuted.
Peters said some cases she’s handled that dealt with fondling resulted in probation or up to 30 years in prison. In some sexual battery cases, people have gone to prison for life, she said.
Part of the problem with prosecuting such cases, Peters said, is lack of physical evidence if the child does not tell someone about the abuse right away.
Peters and other law enforcement officials say the key is for children to tell an adult if something is happening to them or one of their friends. She tells children, “it’s not your fault. You need to tell and bad people do go to prison for doing these things to children.”
Abuse in foster homes pegged at about 5 percent
DAYTONA BEACH — The number of children abused while living in foster homes is generally less than 5 percent.
Local investigators looking at foster homes, group homes or other shelters between January and September found indications of abuse or neglect with 65 of the 1,666 foster children, about 3.9 percent. That compares to 5.6 percent statewide, child welfare figures show.
The abuse wasn’t necessarily by the foster parent, but may have occurred while the children were in day care or could have also included children hitting each other, said Ron Zychowski, president and CEO of Community Based Care of Volusia/Flagler Counties, which provides local foster care services for the state.
When speaking about the recent arrest of George Goolde, president of the local foster parent association charged with molesting four children in his care, Zychowski said, “It is rare.”
“Foster parents are very hurt by the fact that somebody who professes to be a foster parent and about kids would do that,” Zychowski said. “That casts a bad name and sheds a bad light on everybody.”
Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, agreed most foster parents do not abuse children in their home. But he said academic studies show conservatively that one-fourth to one-third of foster children will be abused in care.
Last week, a Polk County foster parent was arrested in connection with a 3-month-old who suffered life-threatening injuries after two weeks in foster care.
Wexler said part of the reason for the difference in reported numbers of abuse could be that children may not want to speak up until after they are safely out of the system.
He said the solution would be to take away fewer children from their parents so foster homes won’t be overcrowded and there will be “less temptation to look the other way for signs of maltreatments in foster care.”
What to Look For
Signs of sexual abuse, according to the Children’s Advocacy Center:
· Physical signs of a sexually transmitted disease.
· Evidence of injury to the genital area.
· Pregnancy in a young girl.
· Difficulty sitting or walking.
· Frequent expressions of sexual activity between adult and child.
· Extreme fear of being alone with adults of a certain sex.
· Sexually suggestive, inappropriate or promiscuous behavior.
· Knowledge of sexual relations beyond what is expected for a child’s age.
· Sexual victimization of other children.
The center tells children that if someone hurts them, they have the right to tell. Such hurting may be physical such as hitting; sexual by touching under their bathing suit or underwear, or verbal by calling them names or making them feel bad with words. Other advice:
· If someone touches you and it makes you feel funny or weird, you have the right to ask questions, to say no and to get away.
· It is your body and you have the right to be safe and feel good about yourself.
· If someone hurts you, it is never your fault.
· If someone has hurt you physically, sexually or verbally, tell someone.
· If someone has hurt you and told you not to tell, tell anyway.
· Tell your mom, your dad, your grandparents, a friend’s parents, a teacher, or another grown-up.
· If you tell someone and they don’t believe you, keep telling until you find someone who does. Someone will believe you.
· Don’t be afraid. The person you tell may be able to make the hurting stop.
· It doesn’t matter how long ago it happened, you can still tell.
· You are a beautiful, valuable person and it is never OK for someone to hurt you. So tell.
To report abuse, call the Florida Abuse Hotline at 800-96-ABUSE (1-800-962-2873). To reach the Children’s Advocacy Center, call (386) 238-3830.
