Monday, December 15, 2008

Texas Voices claims it's easy to invade the privacy of victims

From her two-story suburban home north of Austin, Jan Fewell, 50, searches for sex abuse victims in order to help their perpetrators.

"Do you know a man named Stephen Fisher?" she asked into her cell phone. "Do you still keep in touch with him? You do? Was it consensual sex or was it rape?"

She had just phoned a now 23-year-old mother of two. Combing through court records, Fewell learned that the woman, at age 13, had had sex with Fisher, a man five years her senior. Fewell wanted to know if the woman, who had refused to help prosecutors a decade ago, would be willing to help her group.

In a later interview, the woman said she regularly visits the man in prison, is raising the two children he fathered with her and counting the days until his release. Yes, she would be receptive to helping the group.

"That was so easy!" Fewell exclaimed after the call ended.

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