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• Peace Corps worker admits abusing girls in South Africa

HARTFORD, Connecticut - A former Peace Corps volunteer apologised for sexually abusing young girls while serving in South Africa and acknowledged the widespread fallout from his crimes, before he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Jesse Osmun apologised in court to the victims, his family and the Peace Corps. He said he struggles with feelings of guilt and shame and acknowledged that his victims will live with the scars of abuse forever.

“I sometimes wish I could take my brain out and wash it of all the memories I have,” Osmun said in US District Court in Hartford.

Osmun, 33, said he besmirched his oath to the Peace Corps to represent his country with pride.

Prosecutors sought a harsh term, saying Osmun preyed on children who were among the most vulnerable in the world, persuading them to engage in illicit sexual acts by playing games with them and giving them candy.

Osmun’s attorney, Richard Meehan, said his client spared the victims the ordeal of testifying by pleading guilty in June to travelling from the United States to engage in illicit sexual conduct with children. He also said Osmun wants to get treatment.

Judge Alvin Thompson said Osmun’s efforts to gain insight into his crimes and to work toward rehabilitation were unusual for a sex offender.

Judge Thompson read a letter in which Osmun described viewing child pornography, which became his “gateway drug” to abuse.

As a Peace Corps volunteer, Osmun worked at a centre that provides support to people affected by the AIDS virus.

He told the court in June that he helped supervise children and was left alone with them for 10 to 30 minutes and recognised that as an opportunity to abuse them.

Osmun admitted that he engaged in acts with one of his victims twice per week for about five months.

US Attorney David Fein said Osmun had shown remorse, but he called the crimes “heinous” and read a letter from an official at the center who said the children were abused in the one place they could feel safe.

She said the children are in counselling and staff were traumatized as well.

“These children have so little, but Jesse has taken the very fundamentals of their lives away,” she wrote.

The Peace Corps has said it was made aware of the allegations after Osmun resigned in May 2011. The agency has condemned Osmun’s actions as “reprehensible” and agreed to contribute $20,000 to a fund for the victims.

Peace Corps volunteers, who are provided with a living allowance and receive transition funds after they complete 27 months of service, provide hands-on assistance in areas including health education, information technology and environmental preservation.

The Peace Corps has sent more than 200,000 Americans to serve in 139 countries.

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Thu May 23 11:52:10 SAST 2013 ::

Oct 11, 2012

warry

When did we need peace. What was happening in cape Town
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Oct 11, 2012

MommaC

I don't care how 'sorry' he is. There is no cure for pedophilia. Put him down like the animal he is - and for the love of the gods, don't let him back into SA ...... EVER
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Oct 11, 2012

RobinH

MommaC: And one could not help but note that he apologises to HIS family, but no suggestion of an apology to the abused girl.
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Oct 11, 2012

DNAambassador

not exactly like the Peace Corps has any role models, have you seen what the US army is up to?
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Oct 11, 2012

Printa

And that makes him wat, a saint because he confessed. While law. Had it been a Black man, he would have been executed.
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Oct 11, 2012

Printa

Texas put to death a Houston-area man late on Wednesday for raping and strangling to death 12-year-old Christina Neal in 2000, despite arguments that he was too mentally incompetent to be executed, the state's criminal justice department said.


White Law
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Oct 11, 2012

RobinH

printa: Lose those racist spectacles man. They affect your vision AND they look kak.
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