This news piece sent to me by Just Ginny, really warmed my heart, and left me with a lovely fuzzy feeling:
NEWBERRY COUNTY, S.C. — A Newberry County man was severely beaten by the parents of three children who the man is accused of sexually molesting, and he was then dropped off at a detention center where he suffered a heart attack.
Officers said they saw the man, later identified as Terry Hugh Gibbs, 54, of Newberry, being put out of a vehicle at the Newberry County Detention Center on Sunday night. Gibbs told officers he had been beaten because he had sexually assaulted three children, all under 10 years old, to whom he is related.
The officers called an ambulance to the detention center. A short time later, Gibbs had a heart attack and was transported to a Columbia-area hospital for medical treatment
Newberry County sheriff’s investigators learned that after one of the children told a relative about the alleged assault, the other children came forward. Gibbs was beaten by the parents of all three children.
Police said they have since learned a fourth child, also a relative of Gibbs, was also molested. Investigators said that there is no indication that any other children who were not related to Gibbs were molested.
Southern justice indeed.
cccH
August 16
10:31 am
Those parents held back. Dunno if I would have.
Myra Willingham
August 16
10:34 am
Too bad there wasn’t a cattle rancher among the parents. He could have really steered things up. đŸ˜‰
vanessa jaye
August 16
12:56 pm
Oh, hell yeah! I only hope the police don’t turn around and charge the parents with assault.
Anya Howard
August 16
3:06 pm
I’m from the south, and feel child molestation is a reprehensible act and can fully emphasize with these parents. But I also like the idea of innocent-until-proved-guilty in a trial of your peers. If he’s found guilty in such a court of law I pray he never sees the light of day again. However, vigilante mentality is as wrong now as it was in the days of the Scottsboro trials. Society can never function properly when angry people presume they have the right to dole out justice as emotions dictate.
maddie
August 16
3:21 pm
Wow is all I can say oh and should they have beat the crap out of him? I think it was in the heat of the moment and he must have confessed to the parents, when the first kid spoke up.
Then with the other two coming forward to confirm it, must have set the parent into I’m gonna kill the mother fker, all I can say is he best be glad that they didn’t kill him out right. No good would have come from that or even this beating, they might yet still charge the parents.
I watched an FBI Files episode where they suspected one of the men in the trailer park of molesting a kin and the killed him (molester) and fed his body to the alligators really nasty when you think about it.
I don’t feel sorry for this guy he confessed to the parents and the cops, so unless he just plain stupid he is guilty and should rot in jail.
AztecLady
August 16
3:27 pm
My first reaction mirrored Karen’s and Vanessa Jaye’s, but in the end, I think it is dangerous.
What if the man that the mob turns on happens to be innocent? And while in this particular case there seems to be absolutely no doubt of his guilt, what about cases where appearances are wrong and the man/woman who is lynched turns out to be innocent?
Plus, once people feel entitled to dispense vigilante justice, where is the line drawn?
West
August 16
5:08 pm
That’s what it really comes down to, isn’t it?
Sure, it seems okay to beat the man molesting your children. But then what? It’s okay to kill the man you think killed your child? Or your spouse? Or the person who caused your car accident, because hey! as long as they’ve caused you or your family some kind of harm, it’s okay, right?
But what it that man turned out to be innocent? Not only would you have injured/killed an innocent man, but those are the kind of things DA’s would prosecute. You’ve set yourself up for serious charges.
And if they’re guilty? What kind of message does that send? That it’s perfectly okay to ignore our justice system (however flawed it may be), because you think you have a good enough reason, therefore it shouldn’t apply to you?
I understand the parent’s feelings, but it was not the best way to handle the situation.
Tuscan Capo
August 16
6:01 pm
If the guy’s lawyer later claims the confession was made out of duress and I was on the jury, I would have one helluva time dismissing the facts surrounding the confession. He was beat up by not just a single person, but a group of people. Shortly afterward he suffered a cardiac arrest. If it comes out his attackers had a previous history of hostility against the guy, this is only going to work against the prosecution’s case. As much as I abhor child molesters, in this case I think the children would have been better served if the parents had immediately brought the matter to the attention of law enforcement instead of behaving like a lynch mob.
Anon76
August 16
6:48 pm
It’s too damn bad the car was spotted as they spit this bastard out the door. (Offensive language check? Not today.)
Had the car not been spotted, it would have been the idiot’s word against the sets of parents. That seems fair to me as the defense lawyers for the scumbag will be saying that it is his word against the children’s and no one ever witnessed anything.
Woops, the ass beating wasn’t witnessed either. But the car was spotted…Sigh
IMHO, the parents of these children started putting two and two together after the first admission. Much too late of course, but at least they only beat the dick instead of killing him.
Throwmearope
August 16
7:21 pm
In some parts of the country, rough and ready is the only justice that is available at times. In the suburban town outside of Denver, Colorado where I work, battered women are often lectured by the local cops about how it’s their duty as a wife “to take it.” When a woman defends herself, she also gets arrested for domestic violence. And I’m talking 2009, not 1950.
Not saying the family is justified in their actions, but they may know more about the local police department than we do.
Shiloh Walker
August 16
7:39 pm
I’m utterly disgusted by anybody that has harmed a child. If I knew anybody had harmed mine, I’d go after the bastard and beat him bloody.
Vigilantism does scare me, as does the fact that sometimes…terrible as it is to say, kids lie. troubled kids can tell very, very nasty lies.
I can’t imagine anybody lying about something like this, but it has happened. Kids either get pissed off at an adult and decide to ‘teach them a lesson’ or parents pressure kids into saying something that isn’t true.
If the bastard did abuse the kids, then a beating is the least he deserves, IMO. But if he didn’t…
Shiloh Walker
August 16
7:44 pm
Capo said:
And that’s another cause for concern-if he did do it, if he does get arrested and faces trial, his lawyer’s got one hell of a defense already built in.
Unless the abuse was witnessed, or there’s proof, it’s going to boil down to his word versus the kids.
“They were beating the shit out of me, I would have said anything they wanted.” It makes very some serious reasonable doubt.
There is no level of hell low enough for those who prey on children. But if he walks, he may well turn around and do it to more kids.
joanne
August 16
8:13 pm
Vigilante justice is no just “Southern.”
‘Person of interest’ in custody after beat-down
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/46724362.html
Phila. crowd holds suspect
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/53318202.html
However……….
Vigilante justice has a price
http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/48589027.html
Janean
August 16
8:19 pm
I’m from SC and while I can understand why the parents did this I also think beating him might come back and bite them like others have mentioned. I really wouldn’t refer to it as “southern justice”, either. That doesn’t happen here any more than it does in other parts of the US; most people actually do try to handle things legally through the justice system even when they wish they could take matters in their own hands.
I’m not sure I’d be able to be rational enough to control myself if I found out a family member molested my child, but I hope I would remember that it wouldn’t help my kids if I had to go to jail for assault AND the molester walked free because I lost my temper. Besides, I’ve heard that convicted child molesters don’t have the best time in prison – so the monster would suffer more if he went to prison for years than he would in one beating.
He really doesn’t appear to have been beaten as badly as you would think when you look at his mug shot. Someone must’ve been at least rational enough to hold back a little bit.
Anon76
August 16
10:36 pm
Janean,
That is an old mugshot for this guy. No charges yet on this case while he is in the hospital, hence, no new muggie.
Janean
August 17
1:11 am
Ah, I see. That makes sense, then. I wondered how he could’ve been “severely beaten” with that mug shot.
Larry
October 2
12:23 am
Unfortunately, I know this man. I’m surprized his family didn’t just kill him. Newberry is not the backwater you might think. It’s a tourist attraction with lots of high end restaurants and world class venue acts in it’s Opera House. Still, people like this live everywhere. I will say that I sort of know this individual, he does have some emotional and mental issues along with alcohol addiction. Not defending him, but why on earth would anyone entrust their children to a man such as he? The parents have to shoulder some of the blame for leaving their children alone with an alcoholic with a mental disorder, don’t you think?