Briton with dungeon who plotted to kidnap and eat child jailed in US
Source: Guardian
A British man who plotted to kidnap, rape, murder and eat a child and had prepared a dungeon apparently for use in the grisly ritual faces up to 27 years in a US jail before deportation to the UK under a plea agreement.
Geoffrey Portway, 40, who had been living in Worcester, Massachusetts, has admitted "solicitation to commit a crime of violence" and distributing and possessing child abuse images.
...
The room, was lined with sound-muffling equipment as well as a chair, television, and what appeared to be cable access to the internet. It also contained a child-sized homemade coffin with large speakers covered in wire mesh at one end and exterior locking devices, a steel cage with multiple locking devices, and a steel table top with steel rings at six points, presumably for restraints, said the statement.
...
Portway is said by authorities to be part of a worldwide network of offenders. Agents from homeland security investigations said they have been able to rescue 160 children and arrest 51 perpetrators since a man called Robert Diduca was arrested on child abuse-related charges in Milford, Massachusetts, in 2010. He was sentenced to 18 years in June last year.
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/07/briton-dungeon-kidnap-eat-child
Thank goodness they got him before he did something.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)He should never, ever, ever be free in society again.
"The dungeon was described in detail by Portway in recovered chats as a place he intended to use to keep kidnapped children while he sexually abused them and as a place to eventually murder and cannibalise the children", said the statement.
Since at least 2010, Portway had used Skype and other programmes to communicate with a man called Michael Arnett, from Kansas, trading images of injured, mutilated and dead children and chatting about sexual abuse, rape, abduction, murder and cannibalisation of children.
Portway had "repeatedly solicited Arnett to kidnap a child for him, with the intent that Portway would ultimately rape, kill and eat that child".
There is evil in this world. Not people who are disturbed, mentally ill, desperate. Some people are just plain evil, to the point of being beyond redemption.
Response to muriel_volestrangler (Original post)
LiberalEsto This message was self-deleted by its author.
Brigid
(17,621 posts)theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)Guess what? It worked.
snagglepuss
(12,704 posts)irisblue
(32,931 posts)This isn't as funny as you thought. Please consider removing this post.
LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)I'm sorry, everyone. I'm not thinking straight today.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)...sentencing in this country is effed up. They need to throw that Brit in jail somewhere (here or in UK) and throw the key away. Thank God they nabbed the pervert cannibal.
KansDem
(28,498 posts)Last edited Tue May 7, 2013, 11:23 AM - Edit history (1)
Then he'd gotten a much stiffer sentence!
ReRe
(10,597 posts)...that is what first came to my mind!
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)... when I read about some psycho's plot to kidnap, torture, rape, kill and eat a child, the first thing that didn't come to my mind was someone's right to smoke a joint.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)... Have you ever noticed how sentences these days seem to not be commiserate with the crime? Our prisons are full of people serving exorbitant sentences (20-30 yrs) for just smoking a joint, for mere possession of a joint. Yet, here is this pervert and he only got 18 yrs, when he should have been given a longer sentence. Comprende?
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)But I guess my priorities differ from yours. Comprende?
ReRe
(10,597 posts)TheMadMonk
(6,187 posts)ReRe
(10,597 posts)slor
(5,504 posts)you missed an "m".
nomorenomore08
(13,324 posts)states. Though growing or selling it is a felony, which I think is still pretty outrageous, considering. So your main point is still valid.
He should run for congress in South Carolina as a Republican, he's be a shoe-in
Myrina
(12,296 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,606 posts)I thought they totally made creepy shit up for that show - but apparently not.
LuvNewcastle
(16,835 posts)but yeah, it does sound like Criminal Minds.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)About Bucket of Flesh
I'm Mark, and you probably won't like me.
"Paint what you want and die happy."Henry Miller
This is the same culture we live in that makes plastic bleeding targets that look like women, sold at the NRA convention, as linked on a thread here. Eating, torturing, raping and killing other humans is a joke to some. There's an epidemic of children being tortured, raped and killed in India. Some of us fail to see the humor of NRA targets and all the rest of this.
zazen
(2,978 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)They don't stop people posting white supremacy or other things anymore. At one time, they did. Now the only thing they censor is copyrighted material.
It used to be a big deal to get an account closed down for racist, pornographic or shock videos. But everything goes now, from people laughing while killing animals, etc.
Ggetting an account shut down is no bigger a deal than getting banned at DU. Most of the conspiracy pundits use youtube and have millions of followers. Once you get there, anything goes.
From claiming world leaders are killing and torturing kids and drinking their blood, to not being humans at all. So I'm not sure he's a plant, it's a minor part of what is going on at that site. I can't imagine what LEOs, detectives or investigators feel when they see this in real life.
Not all stuff on social or the network media is fake, as the Infowars crowd claims the kids at Newtown aren't dead, that Jeff Bauman didn't lose his legs in the Boston bombing, etc. The line between fiction and reality is being crossed often, and those who support CT can use the excuse it's possible to make a movie to create an illusion, and they are heavy into media.
I don't know about this guy, but he could be real. Look at the case in Cleveland, folks next door didn't have a clue what was going on, anymore than in mass murderers or cannibals like Dahmer. We just don't know, but we can't very well deny that humanity can choose to do horrible things.
proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)Unfortunately, they've redesigned their website and now, IMO, it's junk. The excellent newswire archive appears lost, including multiple previous articles on Arnett and the Florida puppeteer. google: protect.org kansas arnett florida puppeteer
RECOMMENDED:
http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1302/130211kansascity.htm
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2012/07/29/led_by_an_innocent_into_a_web_of_evil
https://www.facebook.com/protectnow
wickerwoman
(5,662 posts)and decides to build a dungeon to cannibalise children.
Pretty sure he has "done something"- probably quite a few somethings- and gotten away with them.
MH1
(17,573 posts)I'm no psychologist or neuroscientist myself, but I have a sample CD from The Teaching Company that is about the brain, and it starts out discussing a couple cases where someone's personality - someone who was once 'normal' - takes a bizarre turn at some point in life, like 30's or later. So I wouldn't entirely rule out some mental break.
That said, if he had all the equipment the article says, either he'd be fantasizing about and planning this for quite some time, or he's done something before, like you said. To me, it's the amount of preparation that suggests it isn't his first time.
magical thyme
(14,881 posts)I'm thinking death, and they aren't even going for life in prison, no parole ever?!?!
My god...I stopped watching criminal minds after it's first couple seasons when it veered from what seemed like honest crime-busting to just glorifying the most heinous things possible, beyond anything I could conceive. It never occurred to me that it could be real.
These vermin are beyond rehabilitation. Normally I think of euthanasia for them. But I wouldn't mind sticking them in a lifetime of solitary at the supermax. I can't even begin to imagine the depravity of such minds...
muriel_volestrangler
(101,271 posts)He pled guilty to the charges, and I suppose that, if it went to court, they could have tried a defence of "it was all only a fantasy - he wouldn't have dared to try and do it in reality". He had the photos of child abuse, so that should carry a heavy sentence, since he's an accomplice to the abuse of those children, but I don't think they've been handing out life for possession of child pornography.
If he does serve 27 years, it'll take him to his late 60s, and after that time in prison, he'll hopefully be in no state to be a threat to others.
Douglas Carpenter
(20,226 posts)if I can at least grasp the motivation -- NOT whether or not I could ever imagine committing a capital crime - I am sure I cannot. But is it possible to at least imagine how somewhat else might be tempted to do so? For example, can one imagine that if someone who felt and was certain in their own mind that someone had intentionally done great evil to them - can I imagine that someone might feel tempted to kill them in revenge? Well, to be honest, again NOT that I would or that I would approve - but yes I can at least imagine the motivation. But planning to kidnap, torture and murder a child who has done nothing to them? That is so far beyond my ability to comprehend - it boggles my mind. I will never believe that someone who thinks like that is not crazy. Nor will I ever believe that anyone would consciously choose to have a brain that thinks that way.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)The search also yielded this man, a Michael Arnett of KS:
Predator admits putting naked child in roasting pan
That is from this year, he is due to be sentenced this month.
http://www.kctv5.com/story/21095185/predator-admits-putting-naked-child-in-roasting-pan
http://www.kctv5.com/story/18619292/shawnee-mission-teachers-help-identify-porn-victims-prosecutors-say
Despite the denials at the second link, this story links him with another man working with him, Robert Poe III of MO:
LOCAL MAN CHARGED WITH MAKING CHILDREN PERFORM SEX FAVORS.
By Mass Appeal News
Robert Poe III of Kansas City, Kan. has been charged with three counts of transporting a minor for the purpose of engaging in a sexual act. He was arrested in Texas earlier this month. According to federal court documents, Poe forced two boys to perform oral sex on him while holding a gun to their heads.
http://www.massappealnews.com/2012/08/30/man-charged-in-sex-crimes/
This guy's story links to the rest:
Kansas Man Caught In Child Porn Sweep Pleads Guilty
February 19th, 2013
http://salinapost.com/2013/02/19/kansas-man-caught-in-child-porn-sweep-pleads-guilty/
The ICE page came up with a lot more names from last year, and the list below is why all these names are in the results. The ICE piece is informative and links to the story of Robert Diduca, seen here on DU:
Additional Kansas man arrested on charges stemming from international child pornography probe
August 30, 2012
HSI encourages potential victims to contact law enforcement authorities immediately.
According to additional court documents throughout the United States, Arnett was communicating on the Internet with numerous child pornography suspects. The following have been arrested and charged as part of this international child pornography investigation. The following suspects were communicating directly with Arnett via the Internet:
Ronald Brown, 57, of Largo, Fla.
Robert Mucha, 56, of Newton, N.J.
Geoffrey Portway, 39, of Worcester, Mass.
Jason Scarcello, 42, of Anderson, Calif.
Richard Dates, 67, of Grant, N.M.
Timeline of events and the locations provided by HS:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/2012/07/28/childporn/uijuxLOnLWedYOIx1lyjoN/story.html
The search also gave the picture and story of Ronald Brown of FL and this story is from 2012, but he is mentioned above:
Puppeteer Who Wanted to Cook and Eat Children Exposed in Vast International Child Porn Ring
http://christiannews.net/2012/08/06/puppeteer-who-wanted-to-cook-and-eat-children-exposed-in-vast-international-child-porn-ring/
These guys worked together, and the next links are not for the squeamish. The second link of conversations of these men planning their acts freaked out even the investigators. I found a link to their disgusting chat which I lost, fortunately:
http://columbiadailyherald.com/sections/news/nation/vast-international-child-porn-network-uncovered.html
http://www.theledger.com/article/20120725/NEWS/120729584
That's that. I don't know how many of these murdering freaks are running around, or if it's worse than it's ever been. But they sure have been abusing the power of the internet to make all their perverted fantasies come true and destroy lives.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)... but now, if you're NOT overprotective, you're being neglectful. I would advise all young mothers nowdays to never ever let your children's feet hit the ground where you can't see them enter their destination. And it doesn't matter if they are girls or boys.
nomorenomore08
(13,324 posts)proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)PROTECT
May 14, 2013
Everyone heard the story about Cleveland. But there was a *second* basement dungeon in the news the same week, and it received almost no media coverage.
While that house in Cleveland represents our collective horror at the cruelty inflicted on innocents, there was a house in Worcester, Mass., where Geoffrey Portway had built his own dungeon: a soundproofed, double-locked basement with a child-sized coffin, a steel table with restraints, an Internet connection, and butchering tools. This "Ariel Castro" was apparently caught before he abducted and killed a child.
This Worcester house represents our collective apathy and incompetence to act. It is a symbol of how easily we could rescue other children if we really cared.
Thousands of other houses of horror are KNOWN to law enforcement right now (you've seen the maps), and thousands of children could be rescued immediately. By choosing to not fully fund law enforcement to investigate the leads on the maps, our government has chosen to leave those children in peril.
Here's the ICE bulletin. See paragraph 9 if you're feeling strong:
http://content.govdelivery.com/bulletins/gd/USDHSICE-79da34
And here's the story about the maps, once again:
http://www.protect.org/hero-articles/106-map-of-the-war-on-u-s-children
proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)Worcester man who wanted to cannibalize children sentenced to 27 years in federal prison
09/17/2013 5:01 PM
By David Abel and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff
WORCESTER - Child pornographer Geoffrey Portway, who asked a Kansas man to kidnap a child for him so he could torture, kill, cook, and eat the child in a sound-proof dungeon he built in his basement, today was sentenced to nearly 27 years in federal prison.
Portway, a 40-year-old citizen of the United Kingdom, was also ordered to pay $15,000 in restitution to five children he victimized as part of his participation in the dissemination of child pornography that included 5,700 documented times he shared images with others, according to court records.
In court, Assistant US Attorney Stacy Dawson Belf said Portway was a man determined to torture and cannibalize children, but defense attorney Richard Sweeney said the Worcester resident was a man with issues who only engaged in fantasy role-playing on the Internet.
But Belf told US District Court Judge Timothy Hillman that investigators from the US Department of Homeland Security were fortunate to have discovered Portway through a sweeping child pornography investigation when they did.
The seriousness of these crimes cannot be overstated, she said in court. He sought to kidnap, rape, cannibalize and murder a child. He makes clear that he is not about role playing. He was caught by investigators in the nick of time.
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