From the linked articles:
What the prosecution has
1)Allegations from a co-worker
Quote:
Thomsen was arrested June 27 after he was accused of sexually abusing the students in various ways between May 27 and June 4. According to authorities, he placed the hands of nine kids on his genitals over his clothing.
Another three children had their buttocks rubbed by the teacher, while a 13th victim had his head placed against the intern?s clothed crotch on three occasions, officials said.
2)a confession
Quote:
'You?re telling me you have a video, he says, so I guess it happened but I have no memory of it.'
What the defense has1)Nobody else corroborates the coworkers allegations, not the children, or a monitor also in the room at the time of the allegations
Quote:
No one else reported the 6-foot-3, 280-pound native of Denmark, according to his lawyers and a July 2 letter from the school. They added that a monitor was in the room during the time of the alleged abuse and found nothing wrong.
No children have come forward with allegations, but then again children often don't. However, parents do. And parents notice if there is a sudden uptick in stress behaviour from their kids such as crying spells, bedwetting and nightmares. That no parent came forward with reports of stress reactions from their kids- let alone actual allegations- even after they found out about this makes it less likely to have actually happened. Kids may not put things into words but they do have visible stress reactions and no parent has come forward saying that their child had stress reactions and they never knew why but it happened right after that time period.
2)the confession is rather weak
Quote:
'You?re telling me you have a video, he says, so I guess it happened but I have no memory of it.'
There was no video. The police wanted to see what he would say if they claimed there was. "so I guess it happened" is technically a confession- enough of one to get him held pending further investigation and trial- but it could just as easily be a guy suddenly wondering if he violated a cultural norm because his country has different norms.
His mother said
Quote:
'In Denmark, we don?t have this fear of touching. It?s normal and common if a child is sad, you put him on your lap,' she said.
so his supposed confession may have been him wondering if non-sexual touching (putting a kid in your lap) got misinterpreted as sexual touching by people watching a video (no actual video exists). Of course there is a gigantic difference between putting a kid in your lap (or on your shoulders as in a linked picture of him and a kid) and
Quote:
Prosecutors say Thomsen placed the hands of nine different children on his genitals over his clothing and that he pressed the head of a 10th victim against his clothed genitals. He also allegedly touched several children on the buttocks.
. But then again he didn't confess to doing those specific actions but rather "so I guess it happened" which could also be him wondering if non-sexual things he did got misinterpreted as sexual.
My suspicion is that he's innocent. This suspicion is based on the singular nature of the allegations (a co-worker who says these things happened even though there was a monitor in the room in who says they didn't) but mostly on the lack of parents coming forward. School officials could conspire to cover up a crime so they won't get sued. But if it happened, the odds are that the parents of the kids would be calling for his blood and stating their child's previously inexplicable bedwetting, crying spells and nightmares as circumstantial evidence. But none of them are. If any of them had but it wasn't being reported, you'd see them unleashing fury in the comments section of any article they could find. But they aren't.*
I am confident he will be found innocent.
However I don't see his arrest as some damning indictment of the American judicial system. Such allegations have to be taken seriously and the confession- weak though it is- does make for probable cause to hold him. But it is only holding him. He hasn't been convicted, nor is he likely to be on these flimsy allegations.
*I'm a parent myself and hypervigilant about this sort of thing. It is the norm for parents to go on high alert if their child has a sudden uptick in stress behaviours, even without the child spelling out exactly the source of stress. That high alert would go to defcon 1 after the arrest of somebody taking care of my child. That no parent has come forward corroborating a stress reaction in their child or an actual allegation either in the media or in comments on the media stories is very telling. Believe me, those parents quizzed and crossed examined their children as soon as they found out about this. That is a parental norm.
08 Jul 2014, 1:06 am
