Four years volunteering as a childs advocate for the county, serving on his church's youth group and as a worker for CASA. His references were perfect, his criminal background checks spotless.
And then an 8 year old girl came forward to admit that Billy Dan Carroll had been sexually abusing her.
I often tell people that they can not use the sex offender registries as a source of perfect guidance on who their children are around- because while every offender on the list has committed a sex crime, not everyone who has committed on is on the list. And even more this case points out that so often, the biggest danger comes from the person we'd least suspect. Carroll clearly blended into society well, didn't come off raising any red flags, was just your average guy next door. His work with church groups and as a child's advocate would likely impress most people.
HT Trench.
And then an 8 year old girl came forward to admit that Billy Dan Carroll had been sexually abusing her.
"This individual has been through an FBI fingerprint check, national criminal databases, state of Texas criminal databases, the CPS central registry, those are all of the sources that we can check on every potential volunteer," said Laura Wolf, executive director of Court Appointed Special Advocates of Travis County. "This particular criminal background check came back clean with nothing to give us any cause for concern. We also talk to personal references. This individual had glowing references."
Police said they believe the girl is not Carroll's only victim, and he may have assaulted more children and even some adults.
[...]
"Mr. Carroll has no record of anything -- if you would have checked into him, you would have found him to be the neighbor next door," said Sgt. Brian Loyd. "He would be somebody that you would never, ever in your entire life would suspect of doing anything like this."
I often tell people that they can not use the sex offender registries as a source of perfect guidance on who their children are around- because while every offender on the list has committed a sex crime, not everyone who has committed on is on the list. And even more this case points out that so often, the biggest danger comes from the person we'd least suspect. Carroll clearly blended into society well, didn't come off raising any red flags, was just your average guy next door. His work with church groups and as a child's advocate would likely impress most people.
HT Trench.
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