Our View: Convicted Child Sexual Abuser Charles Donald Corley Should Not Be Paroled

Birmingham News
January 30, 2012

http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-commentary/2012/01/our_view_convicted_child_sexua.html


History and research have shown that pedophiles -- serial offenders who sexually abuse children -- often repeat their terrible crimes even after being caught or serving time in prison.

Of late, there have been some high-profile cases which support that conclusion, most notably that of Daniel M. Acker Jr., the retired Shelby County fourth-grade teacher who has been charged with six counts of first-degree sexual abuse. Police say Acker has confessed to molesting more than 20 young girls over his 25-year teaching career. Acker was accused of molestation in 1991 and was suspended with pay, but the Shelby County Board of Education reinstated him to his teaching position after a Shelby County grand jury failed to indict the teacher.

Charles Donald Corley also is a serial molester who was convicted of sexually abusing three boys in 1995 and sentenced to serve 30 years in prison. Yet, Corley is coming up for parole on Tuesday. Authorities say Corley left a trail of abuse over three decades -- the 1970s, '80s and '90s.

Corley did what many pedophiles do: put himself in a position of trust, working with young people -- in his case as a respected Boy Scout leader and Trinity United Methodist Church leader.

The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles shouldn't have to deliberate long to deny Corley's parole. He has served just more than half his sentence, and he should serve every day.

The board has to consider the damage Corley left in his wake. Fortunately, there are courageous former victims of Corley's who will not let the pedophile's parole hearing go unnoticed.

News staff writer Carol Robinson told the story last Sunday of Jason Lee, a 36-year-old former Homewood resident, who was one of Corley's victims.

"I was just a kid, and he used me as a sex toy," Lee told Robinson.

Lee hasn't simply gone public with his story. He and some of Corley's other victims have created the "30 is 30" website and also created Facebook and Twitter accounts. The goal is to make sure Corley serves his full, 30-year sentence.

It's too bad that Lee and Corley's other victims have to go so far to keep somebody like Corley behind bars. Lee spoke against Corley's parole at a hearing in 2005, and Corley was appropriately denied.

And Corley should be denied every time he comes up for parole. The victims of child sexual abuse have to live with that abuse for the rest of their lives. They put their trust in a teacher or a youth minister or a Boy Scout leader, and harshly learn that trust is mistaken. Then, they must relive the abuse at regular intervals to keep a pedophile beind bars.

In Lee's case, he has been married, divorced and undergone hundreds of hours of therapy.

The Charles Donald Corleys of the world are one reason we have to have prisons. Corley is lucky he got only 30 years. He should have to serve every minute of that time.