Today, forced sodomy charges were brought against Michael Devlin, the sick, pizza makin’ mother-fucker who abducted Shawn Hornbeck and little Ben Ownby. The details come out as the blogosphere has been on fire with accusations and uniformed opinions as to why Shawn Hornbeck didn’t escape, given all his opportunities. I have read many of these small minded criticisms of the victim himself, with many holding the caveat that they will gladly eat crow if they are found to be wrong. Most notably, Bill O’Reilly who has been an outspoken critic of Shawn Hornbecks presumable compliance with his captor.

Well, get ready to eat it assholes.

I don’t think it’s much of a leap to believe that Shawn was blackmailed. These poor boys, even in their “miracle” of being rescued, this has got to be so humiliating for them. How do you think Ben Ownby’s friends are going to act towards him? How are kids in general going to act towards him? You know how cruel kids can be.

The details will make your stomach turn.

From The Guardian Unlimited:

Devlin, a 41-year-old pizzeria manager who had previously been charged with two counts of kidnapping, was charged with 69 counts of forcible sodomy, all felonies and each punishable by up to life in prison.

St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCullough said 18 of the counts related to an abduction last month, and the remaining counts were related to an abduction several years ago, apparent references to the Jan. 8 disappearance of 13-year-old Ben Ownby and the 2002 kidnapping of Shawn Hornbeck, now 15.

For the four days he was held, Ben was molested four times a day, prosecutors said.

Both boys were found inside Devlin’s apartment in the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood on Jan. 12.

McCullough said the evidence includes interviews with all of the people involved. “Devlin acknowledged committing these acts,” McCullough said.

Forbes report that Ben was forced into sex 17 times during his 4 day abduction:

St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCullough said 17 of the counts related to 13-year-old Ben Ownby, who disappeared Jan. 8, and the remaining counts were related to Shawn Hornbeck, now 15, who was abducted in 2002.

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I just don’t understand “Stockholm Syndrome”.

As evident with the facts coming out about Shawn Hornbeck and how he had free access to the outside world, and yet didn’t try to contact his family, he was most likely suffering from it during his captivity.

Wikipedia describes one of the reasons behind Stockholm Syndrome as:

Loyalty to a more powerful abuser — in spite of the danger that this loyalty puts the victim in — is common among victims of domestic abuse, battered partners and child abuse (dependent children). In many instances the victims choose to remain loyal to their abuser, and choose not to leave him or her, even when they are offered a safe placement in foster homes or safe houses. This syndrome was described by psychoanalysts of the object relations theory school (see Fairbairn) as the phenomenon of psychological identification with the more powerful abuser.

From an outside perspective, it is so hard for me to wrap my mind around. Reports are now coming out that Shawn Hornbeck tried to call his captor Friday night and the assumption is that he was warning him about police poking around.

From The Guardian Unlimited:

At Imo’s Pizzeria, where Devlin was a manager, an employee who did not want to be identified told the newspaper that a boy called the restaurant Friday afternoon looking for Devlin, who was being questioned by the FBI at the time. The worker noticed on the caller ID that the call came from Devlin’s home. The boy told him, “I’m Shawn Wilcox. My father is a friend of Mike Devlin.”

Also, even though he didn’t go to school, eye-witnesses claim that he was friendly with a girl — seen several times holding her hand. He had friends, even best friends that came over to “his” place. It has also been reported that several of his friends came right out and asked him if he was Shawn Hornbeck and by the lack of emotion and response, they brushed it off when he said, “No.”

From the LA Times:

And, they recalled, he appeared to have as much freedom as a teenager could have.

He sported multiple piercings and carried a skateboard. Neighbors said he had a friend who regularly came over, tossed a football around with him and occasionally spent the night. A girl recently began to visit, and she and Shawn were seen holding hands.

He rode his bike around the neighborhood, perhaps even had access to a computer and posted messages on his parents website in the guestbook section.

From the cached version of the Shawn Hornbeck Guestbook on his parents’ website:

shawn - Thursday, December 1, 2005 - 2:56 PM devlin

—————————————-

hey sorry about that last thing i put on there,i write poems and i was wounding if it would be ok to write a poem for the hornbeck fam. and they son “shawn Hornbeck” it would be cool if i could but if you dont want me to i can understan why i guess but i was wounding if i could write a poem in his horner (sorry i dont know how to spell that last word)

shawn devlin - Thursday, December 1, 2005 - 1:59 AM kirkwood

————————————-

how long are you planing to look for your son?

Haunting, isn’t it?

So, although he thought about them and knew who he was (he identified himself correctly when police asked him), he never sought his family out when he had so many opportunities to do so.

I can understand if he felt threatened and he was scared, but wouldn’t rationale take over at some point? Wouldn’t you say to yourself, my captor is at work, I’m at my friends house, if I tell my friends parents about what happened, I can see my parents.

The lack of anger is also puzzling. I saw him in a news conference yesterday and while he seemed happy to be reunited with his family, he also seemed as if it wasn’t a big deal. There wasn’t a ton of emotion. I’m surprised he was even able to come on camera, even if he didn’t directly speak to the media. Wouldn’t you just be so freaked out? I couldn’t even imagine coming out of my room for weeks after that.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not judging him. It’s just so beyond nature or instinct as I know it. And I am afraid, should this boy need to testify, will he refuse? Does he not think this creep, Michael Devlin did anything wrong? What if Michael Devlin’s defense argues that Shawn Hornbeck was not being kept against his will, that he was being treated well and stayed with Devlin because he wanted to?

I hope and pray Shawn’s family put him in intense therapy. They seem like good people, I’m sure they will. He’s gonna need it - probably for the rest of his life, especially if he still has any loyalty to this predator.

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I’ll admit that I’m quite the pessimist and did not anticipate a good outcome when Ben Ownby was abducted several days ago. And now it’s being reported that not only did this story have the happy ending of him being found alive, but also the amazing news that they also found Shawn Damian Hornbeck, a boy that was last seen over four years ago. Holy Deep End of the Ocean! From CNN.com:

Two missing St. Louis-area boys, one of them missing since 2002, were found alive in a Kirkwood, Missouri, apartment, and a suspect was arrested, Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke said Friday.

Shawn Damian Hornbeck, 15, of Richwoods, Missouri, was last seen riding his bike to a friend’s house in October 2002. Richwoods is about 60 miles south of St. Louis.

The man found with the boys, Michael J. Devlin, 41, was arrested and charged with only one count of kidnapping, but certainly charges regarding Shawn’s abduction are to follow shortly.

I can’t even imagine the emotion that their families — especially the Hornbecks — must be experiencing right now. I wish them all the best, and in this instance am extremely glad my “half-empty” view of life was completely wrong.

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