Brooke Bennett, 12 yrs. old Randolph, VT #10

[MCDRAW]

Let's take AR...if AR had come forward and accused Jacques of raping her, would she have been believed? I would say no. She's independently sexually active w/her boyfriend. All Jacques would have had to say is 'she's lying becuase I didn't want her having sex/w Juvenile 2 and , boom, he's acquitted. Unless she came forward at a time when his DNA was on her, he would never have been convicted.

Children do not come forward because when abusers tell them no one will believe them, its true.

I can tell you if any child told me they were being abused, I would believe them and take appropriate action. If A.R. had told someone when it first began at the age of 9, someone would have believed her. I'm sure she didn't tell out of fear.

 

[SeriouslySearching]

I think "Sam" may actually be a boy that Brooke liked.

They pretended he was from out of town and coming in early to help set up the party. I think AR pretended Sam was one of her friends who had a "thing" for Brooke. As far as I can tell, there is no real boy named Sam.

 

[Medea]

I agree. I am not sure therapy will ever be able to undo the damage to her. She is one messed up kid. We don't know how far she went into the torture and murder of Brooke either. There may just be no saving this one.

That's what I think. I had total sympathy for her as a victim until I read her emails. After reading her own words, I had to conclude that Jacques so twisted her mind that he created a predator in her. Its true that MOST abuse victims don't become abusers themselves, but some do. I'd say she is one of that 'some'. Would anyone here want their own child associating with AR? How could someone whose mind and will was broken by the time they got to high school really recover, especially one who came to identify so closely with her abuser(s)?

We still don't know why exactly AR wished Brooke harm or what her answer is going to be about that, and we don't know if she left the house the way she said she did, I think no, she didn't, she was there for at leat part of what happened to Brooke.

I would commit her to a psychiatric hospital.

 

[Busylady]

In my opinion, someone viewing child is living more than just a fantasy. In order for someone to be "excited" while watching child means that there is something not right in that persons mind. I am sorry but you cannot convince me that the majority of people who watch child do not take it to the next level most of the time. The image on the computer screen is no longer enough, it moves to the children in the household, relatives, a child in the neighborhood, etc.

 

[MCDRAW]

I agree. I am not sure therapy will ever be able to undo the damage to her. She is one messed up kid. We don't know how far she went into the torture and murder of Brooke either. There may just be no saving this one.

I agree.

 

[Medea]

I can tell you if any child told me they were being abused, I would believe them and take appropriate action. If A.R. had told someone when it first began at the age of 9, someone would have believed her. I'm sure she didn't tell out of fear.

Me too. But, I'm sad to say that I don't think you and me are necessarily representative of most people. Her OWN MOTHER turned a blind eye to it. I've followed too many cases where the jury acquits, seen too many message boards filled up with hatefull rants about scorned women and lying little children and false rape claims.

 

[becca]

I can tell you if any child told me they were being abused, I would believe them and take appropriate action. If A.R. had told someone when it first began at the age of 9, someone would have believed her. I'm sure she didn't tell out of fear.

The very first person a little girl goes to is her mother. Most mothers would look at her and say her imagination is getting wild. She saw a movie , read a book something that triggered her imagination. Few mothers would say " you are dead, you touched my baby." Trust me on that one... I had a foster daughter that was abused by her father from age 6 to 13. The mother believed the father. When the parents finally divorced years later, the daughter told her... look there is nothing in it for me to lie now.... it happened. Then my wonderful grown up girl made peace with both of her parents...

 

[SeriouslySearching]

Boy, it is a good thing I don't frequent sites that tout false rape claims concerning children. My blood pressure couldn't take it. :furious:

 

[MCDRAW]

The very first person a little girl goes to is her mother. Most mothers would look at her and say her imagination is getting wild. She saw a movie , read a book something that triggered her imagination. Few mothers would say " you are dead, you touched my baby." Trust me on that one... I had a foster daughter that was abused by her father from age 6 to 13. The mother believed the father. When the parents finally divorced years later, the daughter told her... look there is nothing in it for me to lie now.... it happened. Then my wonderful grown up girl made peace with both of her parents...

I know this happens. I would hope it's "some" mothers and not "most".

 

[MCDRAW]

Boy, it is a good thing I don't frequent sites that tout false rape claims concerning children. My blood pressure couldn't take it. :furious:

mine couldn't either!

 

[becca]

I know this happens. I would hope it's "some" mothers and not "most".

we can hope but its not the case. Look how many cases are out there of adults wanting to file charges against a parent or grandparent. They usually tried to tell a family member (MOM) and no one listened to them. So they suffered years of abuse in silence.

 

[Medea]

Boy, it is a good thing I don't frequent sites that tout false rape claims concerning children. My blood pressure couldn't take it.

During the Kobe Bryant case I started doing some research on rape statistics so I could understand the evidence myself and to try and understand the outpouring of hate for the 18 year old alleged victim...and that led me to open a window on a whole world full of mysogynistic BS...since then, I've loosely followed a number of sex crime cases and they almost invariably involve victim bashing and a demand for a level of evidence beyond what is needed in other types of cases. If I said you stole my purse and my purse was found at your house, nobody would accuse me of giving it to you and then lying about it. When its rape, that logic goes out the window.

 

[Taximom]

That child has been to a place where few adults go .... for her to ever have a normal (whatever that means) life will be a stretch. Her life is never going to be easy or normal. She will need long term mental care. This will include residency care and care after . She helped either willingly or not to kill her cousin. Either way she will be traumatized by it forever.
She has to face lots of things that are now reality.... LE , her mother(who I think knew and did nothing) her other family members and people in the town , (the world) that know her part in all this.
For right now they need to watch her every move because she just might be a threat to herself at this point.

This is such a great comment, becca.

I know it's hard to feel any sympathy or empathy towards AR, but I do have some. Who knows what happened to her in the years before the 'President' contacted her at the age of 9? I was watching my kids and their cousins playing last night and thinking that's what AR should have been doing at the age of 9 forward, not being raped and tortured on a weekly basis for the next 5 years of her life.

 

[twinkiesmom]

They may indeed be sickos, and very much deserving of punishment, but there's still a world of difference between fantasizing and actually doing, and most such people don't cross that line, and many of those who don't cross that line never want to in real life. This may owe to real lack of desire to actually do it, or fear of punishment, or to something else entirely, but if every viewer of child was also a child molester, we'd have a *lot* more cases of abuse on our hands than we do now.

Your last point is wrong..One in three girls is sexually abused in this country... For every Brooke that we hear about, there are thousands, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands who are abused in secret, and those cases never go to trial. And judges like the ones in Vermont wink at the child molesters and send them back to the community where they marry other single mothers with children who trade their daughters like currency for a younger husband than they deserve.

And anyone capable of "getting off" on this stuff is as guilty as if he were doing the molesting himself. And what about the double violation to these children of having their victimization out there on tape or pictures and being traded like playing cards?

Your mistake is believing that depravity is something that can be controlled by the mind....once the mind is given over to the depravity, the body follows...and if the person is not making the himself, he is ordering it from others to match what is going on in his head....

 

[Busylady]

I agree 100%!!!

You're living in a dreamland. For every Brooke that we hear about, there are thousands, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands who are abused in secret, and those cases never go to trial. And judges like the ones in Vermont wink at the child molesters and send them back to the community where they marry other single mothers with children who trade their daughters like currency for a younger husband than they deserve.

And anyone capable of "getting off" on this stuff is as guilty as if he were doing the molesting himself. And what about the double violation to these children of having their victimization out there on tape or pictures and being traded like playing cards?

Your mistake is believing that depravity is something that can be controlled by the mind....once the mind is given over to the depravity, the body follows...and if the person is not making the himself, he is ordering it from others to match what is going on in his head....

 

[dark_shadows]

Here is an article from Times Argus with a good timeline;

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080705/NEWS01/807050339/1002/NEWS01



From the article;

The following timeline of the case begins with the earliest known e-mails made public by police between Michael Jacques, Bennett's uncle who is now accused of kidnapping her, and a juvenile female that he had allegedly groomed for sex and used as an accomplice in Bennett's disappearance.

The timeline concludes with the discovery of Bennett's body Wednesday and police charging her uncle with her abduction.

Information presented in the timeline is compiled from police reports, police statements, court documents and various news reports on the case over the last 10 days. Many of the claims contained in the timeline are still alleged acts and have not been proven in court.

Respectfully,
dark_shadows

 

[becca]

This is such a great comment, becca.

I know it's hard to feel any sympathy or empathy towards AR, but I do have some. Who knows what happened to her in the years before the 'President' contacted her at the age of 9? I was watching my kids and their cousins playing last night and thinking that's what AR should have been doing at the age of 9 forward, not being raped and tortured on a weekly basis for the next 5 years of her life.

I agree she should have had a "normal" childhood. But the fact is she didn't . Now the real work begins to get her back to a nearly normal existence . I seriously doubt that she will be written off as damaged beyond repair..... she's a child not a hard drive. She deserves some help and the state needs to see that she gets it starting yesterday.

 

[Amster]

IIRC...JB said Brooke had a planned trip to Texas to visit her step-dad. Which I thought was odd....but, the trip wasn't made up.

 

[Carrington]

I think so. I'm not sure where "Sam" comes from...if AR was making up the fake Sam messages or if Jacques was making them up...its hard to imagine that this 14 year old girl was able to create her own fake personna "Sam" and make him believable to Brooke, or for that matter that a like Jacques would be able to create any messages that legitimately seemed to be from a teenage boy.

Somehow I got it into my head that "Sam" was really juvie 2.

 

[MCDRAW]

During the Kobe Bryant case I started doing some research on rape statistics so I could understand the evidence myself and to try and understand the outpouring of hate for the 18 year old alleged victim...and that led me to open a window on a whole world full of mysogynistic BS...since then, I've loosely followed a number of sex crime cases and they almost invariably involve victim bashing and a demand for a level of evidence beyond what is needed in other types of cases. If I said you stole my purse and my purse was found at your house, nobody would accuse me of giving it to you and then lying about it. When its rape, that logic goes out the window.

That case had to do with him being a star. For some reason people do not believe "stars" would ever do anything like that. Look at Mike Tyson.