Monday, September 18, 2006

A scandal in Philadelphia

Today I came across this news (well, it's some weeks old, but I didn't know until a blogger friend linked it). A professor emeritus at Wharton, one of the top business schools in the US, was arrested on paedophilia charges.

The remarkable thing is that he's been in trouble before: he was caught in a sting operation in 1993, did not admit guilt but acknowledged the evidence against him, and in 1999 was sentenced to five years probation; the judge opined that he would "respond very appropriately". Indeed he did: this time he supplied even better evidence, in the form of mini-DVDs depicting himself engaged in sex acts with children.

I can picture the conversation with his lawyer. It would sound like Holmes and the king in "A scandal in Bohemia":

"How are they to prove you're a paedophile?"
"There are the trips to Thailand."
"Pooh, pooh! Academic research."
"My laptop."
"Stolen."
"The videos on it."
"Planted."
"The mini-DVDs."
"Bought."
"I was in the mini-DVDs."
"Oh dear! That is very bad!..."

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