A Few News Updates for Today

[Original post date: 03/03/10  08:43am PST by Deep Sounding] 
[UPDATES: 03/03/10  10:00am PST by Deep Sounding] 

There are a few items in the news today about william hamilton ayres, accused of molesting young boys under the guise of practicing psychiatry under the auspices of the "American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry."

Credit goes to Taylor over at the San Mateo Daily Journal for drawing our attention to several news items:

[UPDATE: 03/03/10  10:00am PST by Deep Sounding] 
New England Cable News Television will be doing a segment on william ayres TONIGHT (March 3rd, 2010):
The Broadside show with Jim Braude. 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm EST. According to Taylor:

The Guest is Boston lawyer Mitchell Garabedian who made a name for himself by representing the hundreds of victims of Father Geoghan (pedophile priest who was murdered in prison.) Garabadian will be talking about the Ayres case and the standard of care for doctors in Massachusetts. He will also be encouraging victims of Ayres in Boston.

First news item: Michael Rezendes of  The Boston Globe has run a first page article on ayres, giving some background in the case, and the status of the current search for victims in that area. (According to the article, none have turned up so far...) They appear to have worked out where all of ayres' employment records are, as well as the fact that patient files still exist. (But obviously would require patient release for access.) You can see the full first page image of The Boston Globe here. Rezendes has done some digging in some pretty interesting directions, I'd say that the thing that I found to hit home the most is the discussion on the difficulty of prosecuting these kinds of cases, particularly where there is likely to be very little forensic evidence even immediately after the commission of the crime.


The second news item that Taylor points out to us is that as a result of The Boston Globe article, there is a news blurb on Boston's NBC news affiliate. The news clip very briefly re-iterates that authorities are actively looking for more of ayres' victims there.


The third item of interest:  Victoria Balfour, who was instrumental in pushing for the prosecution of ayres, and possibly more importantly in getting the word out to the press, is going to be giving another talk, this time on the other side of the country.

[UPDATE: 03/03/10  10:00am PST by Deep Sounding]

Victoria is also interviewed by NPR Boston station WBUR in a news segment that is apparently running throughout the day today.

I think that the press coverage has been particularly important in this case because the molester was lauded by the county, lauded by the various and sundry medical associations with which he was affiliated. Meanwhile, he was prancing around molesting young boys who were being sent to him by county judges, and he was being made out by county officials as the go-to guy to send your kids to. What an embarassment for the county. I'm guessing they would have been happy to continue to sweep the dirt under the rug, but for the fact that someone (Victoria) started running around to the press to let them know about the evil that was afoot.

But I digress...

Victoria will be giving a talk at the "MaleSurvivor 2010 International Conference" at John Jay College in New York City. The conference runs March 18th through 21st. Victoria will be speaking on March 20th, from 10:30a until 12p. She will be speaking specifically on the william ayres case. We wish her the best, and know that she will knock them dead, as she always does.