A Transportation Security Agency worker who pats down members of the flying public was charged with multiple child sex crimes targeting an underage girl yesterday. The bust outraged privacy and passenger advocates who say it justifies their fears about Logan International Airport’s full-body scanner.
“It’s a huge, huge issue,” said Kate Hinni of FlyersrRights.org. “The TSA needs a complete overhaul . . . If you have a pedophile looking at those naked pictures, they’ve got all your information, it’s a gross violation of their authority. . . . They should make sure none of them is corrupted in any deviant sexual manner.” Sean Shanahan, 44, of Winthrop was held on $50,000 bail after he was charged with two counts of statutory rape, two counts of enticing a minor and one count of indecent assault and battery. He was arrested yesterday at Massachusetts General Hospital.
TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said Shanahan had passed two background checks, neither of which picked up any record that would prevent him from getting a job. The 14-year-old victim watched a movie at his house, Okeeffe said. She said during the film, he massaged the victim’s thigh and touched her under a blanket, then during the February school vacation the girl stayed at his house with his daughter. Okeeffe said Shanahan nicknamed the victim “Kitten,” and that she was seen going into his bedroom.
Shanahan fled the state last week, prosecutors said, sending his ex wife a text asking her to get rid of his computer, adding “I (expletive) up bad.”
Well, it’s not like he met her at work, right?
I support hiring pedophiles for Airport Security. Who else is going to look closely at all those nekkid pictures?
Love those advocacy groups.
No, he probably didn’t meet her at work, however, when the job description includes body-cavity searches and looking at naked scans all day you will have a self-selecting group of applicants.
Typo – should be “flyersrights.org” (lose 1 ‘r’)
Background security checks only prove that you havn’t been caught yet.
About the best you can do without being unreasonable is to check for name changes and criminal records (and records of accusations / suspicions)
OBEY!
he works at the airport, he raped a girl at home. how are these related? she wasn’t one of the people in the screening line. this is people trying to project his crimes on the TSA.
I am not a fan of child rape or the TSA, but this is stupid.
A Catholic Priest in training???
wisd0m said, on March 18th, 2010 at 9:20 am
he works at the airport, he raped a girl at home. how are these related? she wasn’t one of the people in the screening line. this is people trying to project his crimes on the TSA.
I am not a fan of child rape or the TSA, but this is stupid.
While not directly related, it is a bit worrisome to have someone accused of these crimes operating a body scanner that scans people prior to flights. Children fly commercial airlines and pass through the same security as adults. It’s not a far leap to speculate that this would be very exciting to pedo…
#4 agree. The connection is quite hokey.
When the story gets repeated two more times, the tsa screener scanned the girl, patted her down on the conveyor belt, then took her home to see movies and some nookie.
#6 it is especially hokey considering male TSA members only pat down male passengers whereas this douche was caught fondling a girl.
That is SOOOO Ray Liotta.
here are some great examples of this same tactic: http://www.cracked.com/article_18458_6-subtle-ways-news-media-disguises-bullshit-as-fact.html
This is no surprise, pedophiles exist in every profession of society and there is shit you can do about it, aside from jail them after they offend. Safety at the airport is nothing but theater and it needs to stop, but that is entirely unrelated to this crime.
This has nothing to do with TSA..
If it did, we would all see Headlines about “McD person is Pedo”, “Chucky Cheese person is PEDO”, and on and on..
This was his personal problem, NOT his work problem.
That is a stretch to claim that his job at TSA either caused, or enabled, his pedophilia.
That sounds like the same BS where people claim pornography causes rape. Or that some doctors become gynecologist just to get their rocks off.
The sad fact is that the man was a pedophile, and would have been no matter where he worked.
# 8 bwjunior said, on March 18th, 2010 at 10:36 am
#6 it is especially hokey considering male TSA members only pat down male passengers whereas this douche was caught fondling a girl.
I didn’t mention anything about him physically inspecting girls, but Logan International does have millimeter wave body scanners and he could easily be viewing pictures of the children that pass through them.
“It’s a huge, huge issue,” said Kate Hinni of FlyersrRights.org. “The TSA needs a complete overhaul . . . If you have a pedophile looking at those naked pictures, they’ve got all your information, it’s a gross violation of their authority. . . . They should make sure none of them is corrupted in any deviant sexual manner.”
Yeah, like maybe all TSA personnel should be celibate, like Catholic priests. Or maybe not.
This is really stupid when you think about it. There’s no reason that they can’t have the *computer* analyze the naked image, and simply indicate on an outline drawing (when appropriate) where there might be something of interest – by that I mean something potentially criminal.
Okay he had consensual sex with a minor and he’s bleeped.
Do I actually want to know about this? No.