A Troubling Pattern Seen in Molestations

Parents and even some police probably thought a serial child molester prowling the San Fernando Valley had stopped his attacks for good recently after his composite sketch was shown in newspapers and on television.

But experts around the nation know better. They weren’t at all surprised Thursday when told that a man matching the suspect’s description had struck again, attacking an 11-year-old Van Nuys girl after following her for several blocks in the early morning.

After spending years devising psychological profiles of such serial child molesters, an FBI special agent and other experts said they can determine from his modus operandi that this suspect--whoever he is--fits a pattern, and a very troubling one at that.

He is likely to become even more violent, experts say. And no amount of publicity or show of police presence will get between him and his victims. Driven by twisted sexual urges and other inner demons, he will continue, they say, until he is caught.

Experts said the assailant, if the two dozen or so reported attacks since last February are indeed the work of one man, probably comes from a broken home and was himself a victim of molestation. They said he may already have a criminal record stemming from past child sexual assaults.

And unlike most child molesters who use persuasion and manipulation to lure children into their clutches, they say, he is among the few who exhibit the forceful, violent and potentially very dangerous traits of the “abducting child molester,” including the will to rape.

No two serial child molesters are exactly alike, not even such so-called “abducting” molesters, experts say. But they say the suspect in the Valley is probably a social loner who is particularly uncomfortable communicating with and being around young children.

He is a man, they say, who probably does not know his victims, unlike the vast majority of child molesters, who fall into the non-abducting or “Pied Piper” variety. They immerse themselves in activities that involve children and often gain their victims’ trust with words and affection.

And perhaps of most concern, experts say, is that by lashing out physically at his victims, the Valley molester is demonstrating an unquenchable need not only to satisfy sexual urges but to indulge anger and a desire for power and control as well.

“They are stalkers,” said Ruben Rodriguez, senior analyst at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children just outside Washington, D.C. “It’s a psychological need, a desire, a lust. This is his fix, his drive, what makes his day. This is his existence. And he won’t stop until he gets caught.”

No one knows why he has chosen his particular ritual of following and then assaulting children, often as they walk to school.

But according to the various profiles compiled over the years, experts say people like him fantasize for years about molesting young children before acting. They then develop their fantasies, often from a very early age, identifying the ideal victim and circumstance of attack.

Then they gradually progress from thought to action.

“This is meeting some very strong needs that he has,” said Special Agent Kenneth Lanning of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, located at the FBI Academy at Quantico, Va. “In a sense he has no choice. Unless he gets arrested or goes into treatment, or gets sick or dies, there is no reason to believe he will stop.”

Local authorities have said they are working up a psychological profile of the serial child molester to see if they can get to know him better in order to catch him.

The molester went from one attack a month when he began in February to two on Nov. 3. And his level of violence increased on that day, when he pushed a 9-year-old girl into an apartment complex laundry room and raped her. He also has attempted to move other children into inconspicuous locations before molesting them, placing him in the abducting child molester category.

According to a 1990 study by the FBI, medical experts, federal juvenile-justice officials and Rodriguez’s group, such violence-prone abductor-molesters often carry guns and other weapons and use them when committing assaults if they need to.

So far, the Valley molester apparently has shown no such propensity to carry or use weapons, police have said.

But he has shown other traits of the abductor-molester.

“If you know how to relate, befriend or seduce children, you don’t have to abduct or snatch and grab them to commit the offense,” said Lanning. “They have to use brute force because they lack the interpersonal skills to manipulate and control children.”

Chris Hatcher, a clinical professor of psychiatry at UC San Francisco, said such molesters relish each assault, and “take it back and relive it, replay it many, many times.” But they need to continue, compelled to live out some fantasy that has taken years to develop.

“At that point the person is going to do these multiple incidents, even if it increases the probability of being apprehended,” he said.

“If you have had this fantasy for 25 years, it becomes the most important thing in your life.”

Hatcher, a consultant on child molestation to many police agencies, agreed that in all likelihood, the Valley molester will continue until he is caught.

He cited the case of Ted Gaum, who, along with his wife, Mildred, was convicted about seven years ago for the serial molestation of many teen-age girls in Southern California and elsewhere.

When he met Gaum one day while the offender was in jail, Hatcher asked him whether the sexual molestations were worth it after he had been sentenced to spend much of the rest of his life in prison.

“As the correctional officer led him to the door, he turned to me and said, ‘Well, Doc, I’ve got my memories.’ That’s very telling,” Hatcher said. “All of these individuals know they’ll eventually get caught. They know it won’t last forever. And they’re willing to do it.”