Inmates Attack Pedophile, Detroit Does Something Right

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Inmates attack a child molester

Battle in courthouse lockup lands offender in hospital

May 26, 2007
BY BEN SCHMITT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Minutes after being sentenced Friday, a Detroit man who made national headlines for molesting boys he'd met on the Internet was assaulted inside a Wayne County courthouse lockup, resulting in hospitalization.
Ken Gourlay, 29, was sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison on 13 counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a 14-year-old boy, who is now 16 and lives with a foster mother in Harper Woods. Gourlay molested the boy from December 2004 to May 2005.

<TABLE id=articlead><TBODY><TR><TD style="TEXT-ALIGN: center">Advertisement
<SCRIPT language=JavaScript> OAS_AD('ArticleFlex_1'); </SCRIPT><IFRAME marginWidth=0 marginHeight=0 src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/N4031.freep.com/B2157895.25;sz=160x600;click0=http://www.dnps.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.freep.com/news/metro/246112868/ArticleFlex_1/OasDefault/Saturn-MNI-0507-fpnews-160/160x600saturn0507-fpnews.html/34343238346361633436343330363930?;ord=246112868?" frameBorder=0 width=160 scrolling=no height=600 bordercolor="#000000">&ltSCRIPT language='JavaScript1.1'SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/N4031.freep.com/B2157895.25;abr=!ie;sz=160x600;click0=http://www.dnps.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.freep.com/news/metro/246112868/ArticleFlex_1/OasDefault/Saturn-MNI-0507-fpnews-160/160x600saturn0507-fpnews.html/34343238346361633436343330363930?;ord=246112868?"&gt&lt/SCRIPT&gt&ltNOSCRIPT&gt&ltAHREF="http://www.dnps.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.freep.com/news/metro/246112868/ArticleFlex_1/OasDefault/Saturn-MNI-0507-fpnews-160/160x600saturn0507-fpnews.html/34343238346361633436343330363930?http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/N4031.freep.com/B2157895.25;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=160x600;ord=246112868"&gt&ltIMGSRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/N4031.freep.com/B2157895.25;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=160x600;ord=246112868"BORDER=0 WIDTH=160 HEIGHT=600 ALT="Click Here"&gt&lt/A&gt&lt/NOSCRIPT&gt</IFRAME></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Gourlay made national headlines last year in a sexual assault of a California teen who he met on the Internet and lured to Michigan. That case was highlighted by the New York Times and resulted in congressional hearings in which his victim testified.
After his sentencing Friday in Wayne County Circuit Court, several inmates awaiting transfer back to jail attacked Gourlay, who fought back, said John Roach, a Wayne County sheriff's spokesman.
Gourlay was taken to an undisclosed hospital, where he was admitted, Roach said.
Gourlay's injuries were not life-threatening, said Roach, who did not provide more details. The matter is under investigation.
During the sentencing, Judge Michael Hathaway said Gourlay's lack of remorse and denial upset him.
He also chastised Gourlay's family for sending the court letters of support in light of strong evidence against Gourlay.
"None of them will accept that you're a pedophile," Hathaway told Gourlay. "That just got right by them. They're in denial as much as you are."
Michigan Assistant Attorney General Doug Baker said Gourlay encountered the 14-year-old online and later met him and assaulted him repeatedly at Gourlay's home.
The victim's foster mother said the teen is scarred for life.
"My son has been violated physically, mentally and emotionally by Mr. Gourlay," she said. "We have a lot to overcome because of Mr. Gourlay."
Baker said the assault was uncovered as investigators from his office reviewed computer files and letters obtained this year in a raid on Gourlay's home in Detroit.
At the time, evidence was being gathered to charge Gourlay with sexually assaulting Justin Berry of Bakersfield, Calif., who was a teen when Gourlay used him to produce and distribute pornography on the Internet.
Berry garnered national attention in April 2006 when he testified before Congress about online child pornography. He is now 20.
A Washtenaw County jury convicted Gourlay, a computer programmer, in March on the cases involving Berry. He was sentenced in May to 6 to 20 years in prison.

Hooray for mob rule!

"minutes after sentencing"

gotta love that, he didn't even make it out of the courthouse lol

There's a lot of screwed up things about our justice system, but I give a great big :aktion033 to the fact that child molesters are the lowest scum in prison and that they are guanteed to get their ass beat(or throttled) on a daily basis.

glad they didn't kill him. this way when he's better they can beat his ass again.

You guys are savages. I hate pedophiles as much as anyone, but laughing at an assault is disgusting as well.

ewitty said:

You guys are savages.

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ewitty, I see you are from Canada. This wouldn't even be an issue in Canada, or many of the world's countries, because the age of consent is 14.

ewitty said:

You guys are savages. I hate pedophiles as much as anyone, but laughing at an assault is disgusting as well.

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Come on-this is 29 yr old pervert who molested a 14 yr old boy & acts like there's nothing wrong with it. He deserves every beatdown he gets.

quantumleap said:

ewitty, I see you are from Canada. This wouldn't even be an issue in Canada, or many of the world's countries, because the age of consent is 14.

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True enough, but I certainly don't think it's ok that someone molested someone else, even though there is a distinction to be drawn between someone who's 14 and someone who's say, 7. Anyway, I certainly believe this guy deserves to be punished, but nobody on this planet deserves to be assaulted and put in the hospital. Honestly I'm more likely to support the death penalty than I am to support torture (tho I am strongly against both).

Bottom line, I don't respect statements like "I'm glad he got beaten up because he deserved it." It's base, unsophisticated and shows a lack of morality on the part of the posters who say it. Frankly I'm disappointed but far from surprised.

ewitty said:

Anyway, I certainly believe this guy deserves to be punished, but nobody on this planet deserves to be assaulted and put in the hospital.

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wow, you must not have any children or even have any nieces or nephews for that matter. I don't know anyone with kids that would say that a person who commits a violent crime - which is what sexual assault on kids is - should not be beaten or worse.

Maybe if more pedophiles and other people who prey on children knew they would be severely punished, beaten and attacked by other inmates that would be more of a deterrent than trying to send them to sex offender counseling and then releasing them to attack again.

Notions of justice varies from country to country, individuals to individuals, even from different cultures to different cultures.

From what I understand, the phediophile is the lowest of the low in a prison, and the pheidophile is usually kept in isolation, so that the other inmates won't kill him.

Hey, that's prison life.

There was this one case in Canada with a man named Guy Paul Moran who was accused to sexually assaulting and killing his 9 year old girl neighbour. He was convicted of the crime (but later it turned out he was innocent).

He said, Moran that on his first day in the big house, he was terrified beyond anything he can imagined. He knew he was innocent, and yet now he is in the big house full of real bonafide harden criminals. He feared for his life.

As the guard took him to his cell, his nightmare was being played out, and he thought the inmates were going to hurt him first chance they got. However, that didn't happen. An inmate told Moran, they knew he was getting railroad - no one was going to touch Moran.

Moran served his sentence with the general population and was later release when the exonerating evidence came to light.

The morale of this prison story is ... even though they are inmates, they had a sense of what justice is. Give them inmates some credit, eh!

It's base, unsophisticated and shows a lack of morality on the part of the posters who say it

I think you'll find the majority of people in any country will disagree with you on this one.

but nobody on this planet deserves to be assaulted and put in the hospital. Honestly I'm more likely to support the death penalty than I am to support torture (tho I am strongly against both).

You think that nobody deserves a beatdown but suggest that the death penalty might be justified at times? That is definitely interesting considering your attitude. Justice will be perceived differently by everyone, so who are you to say what is moral and what is not. Your attitude of being superior disgusts me.

happend in Orange County, big trial going on, the warden says a guy was a child molestor and to rough him up, but was lying. Charging an inmate with Murder, guy wasnt a pedofile. DA wants an investigation, sheriff Mike Carona did own investigation, DA going over the top.

t3a said:

Maybe if more pedophiles and other people who prey on children knew they would be severely punished, beaten and attacked by other inmates that would be more of a deterrent than trying to send them to sex offender counseling and then releasing them to attack again.

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Unfortunately not, its a medical condition that like many others is treated by the criminal justice system.

t3a said:

wow, you must not have any children or even have any nieces or nephews for that matter. I don't know anyone with kids that would say that a person who commits a violent crime - which is what sexual assault on kids is - should not be beaten or worse.

Maybe if more pedophiles and other people who prey on children knew they would be severely punished, beaten and attacked by other inmates that would be more of a deterrent than trying to send them to sex offender counseling and then releasing them to attack again.

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If the severe legal implications and the near-total social stigma that accompany pedophilia are not enough to deter some sickos from committing it, you seriously think a beatdown will? Wow are you misguided. Virtually all pedophilia stems from severe mental disorders, many of which are untreatable. This in no way excuses the behavior, which I fully agree is as reprehensible as it gets, but let's be realistic here. The assault accomplishes nothing except appealing to the most primitive urge in all of us.

And why do you assume I have no children? If anyone even TRIED to hurt my kids (assuming I have kids) I would freak out and want to kick the shit out of them myself, but I would hope that someone would stop me because what kind of message would that send to my children? Two wrongs and all that.

ewitty, I don't have a problem with your morals (that is what you believe, we all have different feelings on this) but I don't respect the attitude that we're above this etc etc. In my opinion that is ignoring a part of what we are. As civilised as you seem to think we are, we are still animals and primitive urges are what drive us. It annoys me when people forget we are just animals.

Woody0 said:

Unfortunately not, its a medical condition that like many others is treated by the criminal justice system.

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That's what they used to say about homosexuality, but instead of the justice system, they were sent to a shrink.

I don't know how excessive or deviant behavior has become classified as a medical condition, but somehow it has.

Beam me up, Scotty

ewitty said:

Virtually all pedophilia stems from severe mental disorders, many of which are untreatable. This in no way excuses the behavior, which I fully agree is as reprehensible as it gets, but let's be realistic here. The assault accomplishes nothing except appealing to the most primitive urge in all of us.

And why do you assume I have no children? If anyone even TRIED to hurt my kids (assuming I have kids) I would freak out and want to kick the shit out of them myself, but I would hope that someone would stop me because what kind of message would that send to my children? Two wrongs and all that.

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So you say pedophiles being untreatable - so what do we do with them? I am in favor of any change to the current system of 'treatment' and then being released back into society and tracking how close they live to schools.

I want to send a message to children that adults, at least some of us, think perverts who prey on children will be severely punished not put on probation or in treatment. You might say that is some base instinct, so be it - it is good for people to know that heinous criminals are punished, physically if needed. And it can't hurt that the deviants might realize it too.

And why do you assume I have no children? If anyone even TRIED to hurt my kids (assuming I have kids) I would freak out and want to kick the shit out of them myself, but I would hope that someone would stop me because what kind of message would that send to my children? Two wrongs and all that.

perhaps the message that youll do whatever necasary to protect them from sick fucks

t3a said:

So you say pedophiles being untreatable - so what do we do with them?

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castrate them