U.S. man convicted of child abuse exiled to Canada

[CHIMO]

BUFFALO — Jail or Canada? Malcolm Watson chose Canada.

In an unusual sentence that has immigration lawyers questioning its legality, Watson, a U.S. citizen, has agreed to stay out of the United States for the next three years as punishment for having sex with a 15-year-old female student.

The exile starts Monday for the 35-year-old former Buffalo Seminary teacher, who was arrested in April after a mall security guard noticed him and the girl sitting in a parked car for two hours.

Erie County District Attorney Frank Clark called the plea deal “a little dicey” but said the girl's family was happy with it.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061022.wexiled22/BNStory/National/home

[whosinpower]

1. WE DON'T WANT HIM EITHER

Keep your own pedophiles thank you very much.

[etherealtruth]

3. What the heck ...

At what point would we assume that Canadians would accept our sex offenders? How about jailing him where the crime was committed?

This is just stupid

[MichiganVote]

13. Well in Michigan we take Canadian trash and we don't want that

[etherealtruth]

14. 'Tis true!

[Cronus Protagonist]

5. He's YOUR pedophile

He's a US citizen. And really, he may be an ephebophile, now that we've all been educated about Foley. All the article says they were doing was "sitting in a car for two hours" - there must be more to the story than this.

[MADem]

6. Kick him out, then! Is the age of consent different there? Is he a

dual national, per chance, as he has a Canadian wife?

[anotherdrew]

11. maybe he's in Canda looking for a pardon?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20061019.NOBLE19/TPStory/TPNational/Ontario/

Sexual predator at private schools pardoned
Ex-teacher says past 'doesn't bother me'; victim still suffers

A cheerful collage of paper flowers decorates the front door of the comfortable midtown Toronto apartment rented by retired private-school teacher and admitted sex offender Clark Winston Noble. It is an apt symbol of Mr. Noble's recent good fortune, which has made his criminal past essentially disappear.

Eight years ago, Mr. Noble pleaded guilty to a 1989 sexual assault against a student from Oakville's Appleby College. He also admitted that he had attacked an Upper Canada College student in 1971. That student, who is now confined to a mental institution, successfully sued Mr. Noble and UCC, alleging that the elite school knew the teacher was a sexual predator but failed to act.

Mr. Noble, now 68, received a conditional one-year sentence for the Appleby College incident, sparing him from jail. At the same time, the charges involving UCC were withdrawn (although their pertinent facts were admitted to) as part of the negotiated guilty plea.

Mr. Noble's winning streak didn't end there. Three months ago, he quietly secured a pardon from the National Parole Board, effectively erasing his criminal past. Despite Mr. Noble's troubling history, a standard background check will show nothing amiss. And although pardoned sex offenders are supposed to be red-flagged in police computer systems, there are doubts about whether that happened in this instance. Nor does Mr. Noble's name appear on sex-offender registries, because his crimes predate their inception.

(snipped for copyright infringement in the future please limit your snips of articles
to 4 paragraphs as per the Democratic Underground copyright rules . proud patriot)

[bluestateguy]

2. Normally this should not be done

but he did agree to it as an alternative to jail (and under the circumstances, I think he is getting off rather easy). He already has roots in Canada, however:

Under the sentence for sexual abuse imposed by Cheektowaga Town Court, Mr. Watson can enter the United States only to report to his probation officer. Mr. Watson already lives across the border in Fort Erie, Ont., with his Canadian wife and three children.

[Ian David]

4. What's the age of consent in Canada? May not be much punishment.

What's that all aboot?

[truthisfreedom]

7. what, till she's 18, then he comes back and they live happily ever after?

gahh.

[NanceGreggs]

8. Are these people NUTS?!

Canada has its own immigration laws, and can deny entrance to anyone deemed to be unsuitable for any number of reasons. A US judge has no jurisdiction outside of the States. Just how is he planning on forcing Canada - or any other country - to take in a criminal?

And this girl's family is "happy" that this pervert is free to molest Canadian children? How incredibly selfless of them.

[MADem]

9. Yep, I think they're nuts. The only question is, who will challenge the

ruling? The plaintiffs are happy. The defendants are happy. The Canadians might not be too thrilled, nor might the people who think banishment isn't an appropriate judicial tool. But they'd have to get their gripe before a judge, or, in the case of the Canadians, toss the guy out of his home and back over the border.

[NanceGreggs]

12. After posting, I saw info on this thread that this guy ...

... is already living in Canada with his wife and kids. But there was no mention if he is also a Canadian citizen.

If he is a "landed immigrant", as I am in Canada, that means he has been granted legal residency here - which can be revoked by the Canadian government at any time.

I am a court reporter, and did a trial just last month on this very issue. A man who became a landed immigrant here in the early eighties, and became a Canadian citizen in the mid-nineties, was brought to trial by Immigration seeking to have his citizenship revoked and have him deported - because they found out (through a series of purely coincidental events) that he'd been charged with raping an underage girl in his own country back in the seventies.

So they DO take this kind of thing rather seriously here.

I still find it outrageous that anyone involved in this case - the judge, the lawyers, and the Plaintiff's family - think that foisting a pedophile on another community is 'justice'. What is the thinking here: As long as he molests Canadian kids instead of American kids, that's fine with us?

Honestly ...

[MADem]

15. I'm not disagreeing with you at all, but someone will have to raise the

matter in objection with the court, and it's questionable if they will at this point.

Of course, we don't know the full story, the extent of molestation (inappropriate touching is creepy, but less creepy than full fledged rape), the willingness of the victim to testify (did she think she was "in love" with an "older man" or what? Did she represent herself as older than her actual age?) and so on--it might have been the best the prosecution could get if the victim was wobbly about or refused to testify truthfully, and also the best the defense could get to assure the defendant stayed out of jail.

I imagine his WIFE is less than pleased...he may come to realize that the year in jail might have been easier!

[NanceGreggs]

16. No, no one will raise an objection in this case ...

... because they are all reportedly 'happy' with the outcome. And this is an unusual case, in that he apparently already lives in Canada - so it's not really a matter of 'exiling' him to another country; he's just agreeing to stay put where he is.

You're right, though. We don't know the full story - and if he is a guilty bastard, his wife WILL make that year in jail seem like the better option.

I guess we'll know if he shows up at the border, begging to be taken into US custody to serve out his sentence!

[Centered]

10. Poor headline

He already lives in Canada... he has just agreed not to come back. The headline makes it sound like offloading trash to another nation. He is still getting off light compared to what would happen to him in prison.