With 93 child sex offenders living in Carroll, the county is in the “middle of the road” in the state for the number of offenders registered on the sex registry, an expert told Finksburg residents Thursday night.
And more sex offenders are having their mail sent to a friend or family member?s address in order to escape the intent of the online registry.
“I just had a case where a man was using what I call an e-mail drop? and I arrested him Wednesday for using his aunt?s address,” said Sgt. Douglas Reitz of the Maryland State police Internet Crimes Against Children taskforce. He spoke Thursday at a Finksburg Planning and Citizens? Council meeting at Sandymount United Methodist Church.
That arrest, along with another report of a 58-year-old Finksburg man arrested Sunday for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl he met on the Internet, made Reitz?s first-ever community presentation all the more timely.
Reitz demonstrated for parents how an online predator can find a child?s address and phone number minutes after a brief chat room encounter.
Reitz said after the meeting that he wanted to do similar talks in the future on what parents can do to protect their children against online predators.
And just as the Internet has made children worldwide susceptible to molesters? solicitations, the Web has also brought help to parents who want to learn more about rapists and other sex offenders living near them.
Finksburg mother and council treasurer, Debbie Lockwood, said she is familiar with the faces of the 11 sex offenders living in Finksburg ? she checks the online registry once a week.
“It?s our job to protect our kids, and I do feel better that [the registry] is [on] there,” Lockwood said.
Lockwood sent fliers to her neighbors earlier this year, alerting them of a sex offender who had just moved into the neighborhood, only a street away from her home.
“It?s not to harass [the offender] or be a vigilante,” she said. “But a bus stop is right in front of his house.”
Earlier this week, Westminster police charged William Henry Ransley III, of Woodview Road, with third- and fourth-degree sexual offense, second-degree assault and solicitation of a minor after alleged sexual contact with a girl at a Westminster Elementary School playground.
