Vaark
12-15-2009, 02:04 PM
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100-year-old "Unrepentant" Pedophile Set Free, Still Considered Threat
Associated Press
5:24 AM PST, December 11, 2009
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. BUFFALO, N.Y. -- New York's oldest registered sex offender has moved from a halfway house for released inmates and into a place of his own, after completing his latest term in state prison for molesting little girls.
The judge who sentenced him said at the time that she expected him to die behind bars.
But 10 years after his last arrest, as Sypnier prepared to shed the closely monitored lifestyle of the halfway house, its director warned that the spry and active Sypnier has not changed from the manipulator who used his grandfatherly charm to snare and rape victims as young as 4.
"Whether he's 100 or 101 or 105, the same person that was committing these crimes 10, 25, 30 years ago still exists today and has an unrepentant heart," said the Rev. Terry King, director of Grace House, which has twice taken Sypnier in from prison.
Six months after marking his 100th birthday in the Groveland Correctional Facility -- becoming the first New York inmate to reach the milestone while incarcerated the retired telephone company worker now says he wants to get to know the youngest members of a family that has disowned him.
After his most recent arrest at age 90 on charges of raping and sodomizing a 4-year-old girl and her 7-year-old sister, his neighbors in the suburb of Tonawanda recalled what appeared to be a kindly Sypnier offering rides to adults, handing out money to children so they could buy candy, and baby-sitting.
Sypnier's convictions date to 1987, when he was given three years' probation for sex abuse. He spent a year in prison for sexually abusing a minor in 1994.
"Those children crawled into bed with me because they were frightened, but there was never any sexual hanky-panky," Sypnier told the News.
Sypnier initially pleaded guilty in 2000 to two counts of rape, 15 counts of sodomy and endangering the welfare of a child for molesting the Tonawanda girls, as well as three in Buffalo.
"The sheer notion of him wandering the streets unattended or unsupervised is a scary proposition," King said.
Sypnier was released on parole in 2007, only to be returned to prison in 2008 after failing to attend sex-offender counseling.
He completed his term in November and will be on parole through 2012.
Until then, he's forbidden from using e-mail, chat rooms or social networking sites, hanging around playgrounds or schools, or spending time in bars.
Although his age makes him New York's oldest registered sex offender, there is at least one older offender elsewhere.
100-year-old "Unrepentant" Pedophile Set Free, Still Considered Threat
Associated Press
5:24 AM PST, December 11, 2009
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. BUFFALO, N.Y. -- New York's oldest registered sex offender has moved from a halfway house for released inmates and into a place of his own, after completing his latest term in state prison for molesting little girls.
The judge who sentenced him said at the time that she expected him to die behind bars.
But 10 years after his last arrest, as Sypnier prepared to shed the closely monitored lifestyle of the halfway house, its director warned that the spry and active Sypnier has not changed from the manipulator who used his grandfatherly charm to snare and rape victims as young as 4.
"Whether he's 100 or 101 or 105, the same person that was committing these crimes 10, 25, 30 years ago still exists today and has an unrepentant heart," said the Rev. Terry King, director of Grace House, which has twice taken Sypnier in from prison.
Six months after marking his 100th birthday in the Groveland Correctional Facility -- becoming the first New York inmate to reach the milestone while incarcerated the retired telephone company worker now says he wants to get to know the youngest members of a family that has disowned him.
After his most recent arrest at age 90 on charges of raping and sodomizing a 4-year-old girl and her 7-year-old sister, his neighbors in the suburb of Tonawanda recalled what appeared to be a kindly Sypnier offering rides to adults, handing out money to children so they could buy candy, and baby-sitting.
Sypnier's convictions date to 1987, when he was given three years' probation for sex abuse. He spent a year in prison for sexually abusing a minor in 1994.
"Those children crawled into bed with me because they were frightened, but there was never any sexual hanky-panky," Sypnier told the News.
Sypnier initially pleaded guilty in 2000 to two counts of rape, 15 counts of sodomy and endangering the welfare of a child for molesting the Tonawanda girls, as well as three in Buffalo.
"The sheer notion of him wandering the streets unattended or unsupervised is a scary proposition," King said.
Sypnier was released on parole in 2007, only to be returned to prison in 2008 after failing to attend sex-offender counseling.
He completed his term in November and will be on parole through 2012.
Until then, he's forbidden from using e-mail, chat rooms or social networking sites, hanging around playgrounds or schools, or spending time in bars.
Although his age makes him New York's oldest registered sex offender, there is at least one older offender elsewhere.