Center May Get First Female Offender Woman Seeks Commitment As Sexual Predator

A female sex offender may be sent to the state’s controversial treatment center for sexual predators - the lone woman among 31 men considered too dangerous to set free.

Laura McCollum, who says she fantasizes about preying on pre-schoolers, is the first woman proposed for commitment to the special Treatment Center at Monroe.

The center holds sex offenders who have served their criminal sentences, but then are civilly committed for an indefinite time on grounds they are high risks to reoffend.

The center is charged with treating its residents, though court challenges question whether any useful treatment is provided.

Pierce County prosecutors on Wednesday petitioned a Superior Court judge to consider McCollum for the program. McCollum, 37, sought commitment and will not fight it, said Assistant Prosecutor Barbara Corey-Boulet.

“She is the first to admit if she is released from prison to the community it will only be a matter of time before she harms or kills a child,” prosecutors said in court documents.

McCollum had been scheduled for release today after serving a 5-1/2-year sentence for repeated first-degree rape of a girl between the ages of 2 and 3.

While she was imprisoned, McCollum admitted to several other sexual assaults on children, including one on an infant only 4 days old, according to court documents. She was cited 38 times for rules violations in prison, several of which involved assault.

McCollum and nine of the 31 men at the center are awaiting civil commitment hearings before a judge or jury. Commitment requires a finding that she has a personality disorder or mental abnormality and is likely to reoffend.

Female sex offenders are extremely rare. The state of Minnesota’s sex-predator program, considered a model, has 96 participants, only one of them female.

According to court records, experts found McCollum is an “obsessive and compulsive child molester” aroused by toddlers. She was diagnosed as a pedophile with a schizophrenic personality disorder, and characterized as extremely dangerous.