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Child molester Ronald Reo Timm should be locked up indefinitely because he’s a predator who poses a danger to society, a Spokane jury decided today.
Assistant Attorney General Tricia Boerger gave the state’s final argument Tuesday before the jury, made up of nine men and three women, began deliberating the future of the 59-year-old sex offender.
Timm was convicted in 1989 of statutory rape and then again in 1996 for first-degree rape of a child. While in prison, Timm told a counselor that he molested 24 children, all ages between 3 and 7.
“He is a predator,” Boerger said of Timm. “He preys on young girls to satisfy his sexual desires.”
Read the rest of Thomas Clouse’s story here.
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Reporter Meghann Cuniff writes about public safety news from the Inland Northwest and beyond.
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spunky12 on March 03 at 11:48 a.m.
Great job by prosecutors to lock up Timm. Molesters are full time con artists who manipulate not just the innocent victims but position themselves favorably with adults to mitigate any disclosure by their victims.
Sexual abuse of children is horrific and not just to the actual victims themselves. Caring adults are devastated when the truth comes out with guilt and remorse for not seeing what the perpetrator was doing to the child and their failure to protect the child.
Another sad but common scenario occurs when the victim discloses the abuse; the adults come to the defense of the perpetrator and in turn attack the victim’s credibility. The adults go on the offensive with either it never happened or “let’s keep this secret in the family”. In our case, we were told “Lie to the authorities and pretend this never happened”. What can and does often happen next, is that the victim is no longer able to withstand this immense pressure. If the victim then capitulates to the pressure and recants, the adults either in denial and/or supporting the perpetrator then joyfully exclaim “See I told you she was lying.” - What? To get attention? Who would want that kind of attention?
In our family’s case when our daughter disclosed her abuse the “let’s bury this” faction led by a perpetrator family member, immediately went on the attack of the victim. What happening? Within 90 days the victim was permanently silenced (death at age 15) as a direct result of sexual abuse by family members.
The police will tell you that while the Mr. Timm’s of the world are extremely dangerous, the ones who are the most dangerous and under the radar, are fathers, grandfathers, uncles, brothers etc. Take this from experience, when the victim discloses, “believe the children” and don’t naively assume (as we did) that the adults will defend and support the victim.
You might ask, what happened to the perpetrators and were they ever brought to justice? Not!
DeAna on March 03 at 2:10 p.m.
Thank God I don’t have to worry about my sisters, thier well-being or mental status now that they know HE’S never getting out I know 5 of his victims & thats not including me….. Atleast our court systems good for something…
cowboy on March 04 at 2:50 p.m.
He admitted abusing 24 little girls and found guilty in a court of law. Why are we going to keep him alive for 30 years? Do we really have the money to keep this kind of scum alive?
Hang him.