Four homeschooled brothers pleaded guilty Thursday to molesting their younger sister from the time she was 4 years old until she was almost 15 – and their parents and two other brothers still face charges related to the case.
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Eric Jackson, then 25, told authorities that he and all five of his brothers had sexually abused their younger sister for a decade, and authorities say their parents knew but did nothing to stop the abuse.
An elder at Hope Baptist Church, which Jackson and another brother attended, compared the pattern of abuse to other “horrible” sins such as adultery and homosexuality.
No; dead wrong. “Homosexuality” is neither a “sin” nor a crime nor bad. Adultery may or may not be a wrong done to a spouse; it’s not categorically wrong no matter what the circumstances, which child-molestation is.
The victim in the Jackson case told investigators that she believed she would go to hell if she told anyone about the assaults, which she said took place at least twice a week.
She must have believed that because someone told her that.
The parents, John and Nita Jackson, were charged with child neglect, child abuse, and accessory to sexual abuse and will remain jailed until their next court hearing in August.
The girl told authorities her mother had witnessed at least one assault and walked away.
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Tilley, the sheriff, said the family was “bizarre” and the father held “anti-government” and “anti-school” beliefs.
The eldest brother had difficulty writing his own name when he met with investigators.
“The children were home schooled with very limited education,” Tilley said. “They were very private and the whole yard has a fence around it — like a little compound. They’re very different.”
Lots of brotherly love though.
This story makes me so sad. I can’t imagine what the years of torture have done to that poor girl.The parents should be locked away. And any system that let them do this for so long? Broken.
what a horror show. there is no system, at least not in the US that I know of, that can do anything about a family like this unless a victim makes a report or a teacher/family outsider makes a report. doesn’t sound like this household would be easy to find out about, and the victim, of course, was terrorized by all the “go to hell” bullshit, one of the things about religion that I hate the most, the constant promise of final and permanent punishment.
How old was Genie when her case was finally discovered? (13) They only found out about her b/c her mother finally approached social services. http://psychology.about.com/od/historyofpsychology/a/genie.htm
I do not mean to imply that Genie was sexually abused. We do not know, I don’t think. My point is that very very sick families have ways of sequestering themselves and their victims. No “system” sees inside and so no system intervenes. Anyone who can see inside is in on the secret, the sequestration and the justification.
The world really needs a bill of rights for children. For one thing, parents do not have the right to raise a child ignorant because of their religious beliefs. Nor is it a right for parents to assume their child shares their religion. Or wants its ears pierced, clitoris sawed off, foreskin removed, or any other body modifications that can reasonably performed once the child is old enough to make its own decisions.
I have a good friend who is a smart, energetic, well-educated person … except she was home-schooled and anything that had to do with cosmology or evolution was entirely left out. She had no choice in the matter (actually, wanted to be an animal vet until she discovered that you need to know something about biology for that career…)
In a lot of states, all parents have to do is say they’re homeschooling, and the local school system has zero right to inquire about the children. Utah (home of the loonie Mormons) has made it illegal for any school system to inquire as to the health or well-being of any children. Many states are completely hands-off when it comes to homeschooling–if a child is 18 and doesn’t know how to count to 10 or how to spell their own name, well, that’s the parents’ rights. To heck with the child’s rights.
@4. Marcus Ranum :
Well, I hope she knows that its never too late to get an education and adult education is available isn’t it? Obviously she’s got a handicap in not being taught earlier but i wouldn’t think it impossible for her to still catch up and follow her dream if that’s what she really wants to do, surely?
Same applies to everyone really although due to circumstances and privilege some folks will always have it tougher than others. Which is why we need to constantly work to enable more people to fulfill more of their potential and have more equal access to opportunities to learn etc ..