Thursday, January 6, 2011

10 years in prison for child porn - Man had record of child abuse

By Lee Hammel TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER — A federal judge yesterday sentenced a Shrewsbury
man to the maximum sentence — 10 years — for possession of child
pornography, saying that it is more important to protect the public
than to take into account the horrid child abuse the man said he grew
up with.

David Ladeau, 55, of 6 Williamsburg Court, Shrewsbury, was arrested
in spring 2009 in an international child pornography investigation by
the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency shortly after
Mr. Ladeau was sentenced to probation in Westboro District Court
for molesting a 12-year-old boy. Mr. Ladeau was the organist and
choir director of a local church and showed pornographic films to and
molested a boy who was staying at his house in connection with a trip
Mr. Ladeau had organized.

Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV noted letters that Mr. Ladeau sent in code
to his brother while he was in detention after his arrest on the federal
charges. Assistant U.S. Attorney Karin M. Bell said that letters, which
investigators decoded, told his brother, Daniel Ladeau, how he could
find more and better pornography on the Internet.

David Ladeau wrote his brother that he was in jail only because society
is full of "hateful, unloving, unforgiving, uncompassionate bastards and
bitches" who think that people with any sexual interest in children are
monsters, the prosecutor said. He wrote "When I get out — I plan on
looking for churches with … boys' choirs."

David Ladeau told his brother that their sister told him he needs help
and treatment when he gets out but "I feel bad because I feel like
telling her … I will never change," according to Ms. Bell. Mr. Ladeau
also wrote "Thank God I have desires, addictions that won't go away.

It's a gift that pushes me, drives me to what seems to be, unreachable
goals."

Ms. Bell said in U.S. District Court that she would have asked Judge
Saylor to sentence Mr. Ladeau to more than 10 years if the law
permitted it.

As a result of the letters, Daniel Ladeau also was arrested and charged
in federal court in Tennessee and, Ms. Bell said, admitted to molesting
about 100 young boys.

Defense lawyer John H. LaChance said Mr. Ladeau's offenses stem
from problems he had no control over, including sexual abuse at the
hands of Daniel Ladeau from the time he was 10 and physical abuse
from his brother, mother and father, who was sexually abusing a
sister. Mr. Ladeau, a divorced father of a son, also grew up the target
of gay slurs by fellow students, he said.

Mr. LaChance said his client was trying to please his brother, who had
such great control over him all his life. The lawyer said that the letters
were symptoms of the mental illness and abuse suffered by his client
and asked that he be sentenced to half the maximum sentence: 5
years.

Before sentencing, Mr. Ladeau told the judge he knows that his
symptoms make him sound like a "creep, but I'm not." He said he
knows he should be punished and anyone who abuses children should
be jailed. He said he is angry to know how many children, besides
himself, his father abused and has never been punished even though,
he said, ministers and town officials knew what was going on in the
house.

Mr. Ladeau said he is proud that he has been a good father to his son
and helped break the cycle of abuse in his own family. He said, "I'm
sorry for the people I hurt. I need to change and I want to change."

Judge Saylor said he has concerns about the advisory sentencing
guidelines on child pornography and that the facts recited about the
defendant's upbringing are "unfair in the extreme." Yet he said that
none of that outweighs the need to protect the public from the man
who wrote those letters from jail and abused a 12-year-old who was

his piano student. The judge sentenced Mr. Ladeau to 10 years and
supervision for 12 years after he is released.

While Mr. Ladeau did not have a choice about being gay or who
his family was or being mentally ill or perhaps even having sexual
attraction to minors, Judge Saylor said, he had choices over how he
behaved.